How will Montana enforce TikTok ban? Details revealed as the state bans the short video sharing app

On Wednesday, May 17, Montana became the first U.S. state to enforce a complete ban on TikTok. Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed the bill, restricting app stores from giving users access to the platform due to concerns about alleged illegal data scrounging from the Chinese Communist Party. The ban is set to come into effect next year.

The Montana Governor wrote on Twitter that the ban was "To protect Montanans’ personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party". This decision has run into a slew of backlash. Adversaries sight a number of problems with the law, including ethical violations, constitutional infractions, and overall impracticality.

The law, which is slated to come into effect the upcoming year, alleges that ByteDance Ltd., the Beijing-based parent company of the video-sharing platform, stores user data unrelated to the app's purpose. According to the Montana Governor, this data is allegedly sold to the Chinese Communist Party.

The ban does not prevent users from accessing TikTok by levying restrictions or penalties on individuals. The owners of the App stores, in most cases Apple and Google, along with TikTok, could be hit with fines of $10,000 every day that the app remains available for download in their stores.

The ban also does not immediately affect existing users, who could continue to use the app. This would eventually be petered out as a lack of updates would, in time, render existing outdated versions of the app unusable.

The ban can be voided only if TikTok is sold to a company based in any country that isn't designated as a foreign adversary.

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Dissatisfaction reigns large about Montana's decision to ban TikTok

Adversaries have called Montana's decision an attack against free speech, while experts pointed out various loopholes in the law.

Keegan Medrano, policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union labeled the law as unconstitutional, and a result of Anti Chinese sentiment. She said in a statement:

“With this ban, Governor Gianforte and the Montana legislature have trampled on the free speech of hundreds of thousands of Montanans who use the app to express themselves, gather information, and run their small business in the name of anti-Chinese sentiment.”

The TikTok Communications team released a statement on Twitter that stated that Governor Gianforte was infringing the first amendment rights of the people of Montana.

There has also been a lawsuit filed by five Montana TikTok content creators against the law, which they claim is a violation of the First Amendment. The lawsuit was filed only a few hours after the bill was passed. TikTokers also claimed that Montana had no authority over matters of national security. The complaint reads:

“Montana can no more ban its residents from viewing or posting to TikTok than it could ban the Wall Street Journal because of who owns it or the ideas it publishes.”

There are also several impracticalities that may lead to loopholes in the ban's effective functioning.

Since there is no mention of Internet Service Providers in the law, the sole responsibility falls into the hands of companies like Apple and Google, who, according to a TechNet representative at the hearing, "do not have the ability to geofence on a state-by-state basis."

Another very obvious loophole is the existence of Virtual Private Networks or VPNs that allow users to change their IP address and geolocation at will. The only way this can be circumvented is by the state requiring companies to provide them with data on the Internet use of its citizens, which has its own array of legal implications.