Source: TikTok
Will More States Follow Montana And Ban TikTok?
TikTok has been the most downloaded app in the U.S. for three years running. It is also on its way out of Montana at the end of 2023 unless a legal case can be made to throw out a ban (SB 419) signed into law earlier this week by that state’s governor.
Gov. Greg Gianforte said the ban was necessary because the Chinese Communist Party was “using TikTok to spy on Americans, violate their privacy, and collect their personal, private, and sensitive information.”
Montana will prohibit the use of TikTok and other social media apps tied to hostile foreign governments on state-owned devices beginning June 1. App stores will be prohibited from allowing downloads of TikTok beginning on Jan. 1, even though both Apple and Google have said that they cannot limit access in Montana alone.
A group of TikTok users is already contesting the new law with claims that only the federal government has jurisdiction in national security matters and that the legislation signed by Gov. Gianforte violates the First Amendment rights of Montanans.
“By shuttering an entire forum for communication that Defendant Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen himself admitted is one of the best way[s] to get your free speech out there, the law creates a prior restraint on expression that violates the First Amendment, depriving Montanans of access to a forum that for many is a principal source[] for knowing current events and otherwise exploring the vast realms of human thought and knowledge,” the lawsuit argues.
The Biden administration in March threatened to ban TikTok in the U.S. if ByteDance, the app’s Chinese owner, refuses to sell its stake in the video-sharing app.
TikTok bans could have significant ramifications for brands and retailers that have benefited from free user-generated content in the form of “haul” videos that appeal to Gen Z consumers and younger Millennials.
Morning Consult research has found that haul videos are the most likely to drive Gen Z-ers to make a purchase. Forty-two percent of Americans between the ages of 13 and 25 have purchased a product after seeing a video where the creator shows products they’ve bought. A wide range of retailers, including Costco, Dollar General, Sephora and Shein, have all benefited from the largely free publicity that comes from TikTok haul videos.
TikTok is also the most popular influencer marketing channel (utilized by 56 percent of brands using influencer marketing), according to “The State of Influencer Marketing 2023” from Influencer Marketing Hub. The video-sharing app ranks ahead of Instagram (51 percent), Facebook (42 percent) and YouTube (38 percent).
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: How effectively will state bans limit access to TikTok? Do you expect more states to follow Montana’s lead?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Jeff Sward
Founding Partner, Merchandising Metrics
Joel Rubinson
President, Rubinson Partners, Inc.
There’s a lot to be nervous about how all kinds of social media are used to spread misinformation and outright lies and promote violence and…… But outright bans that slam the door on free speech rights go too far. Nuance and reasonableness seem to have been lost in much of our problem solving.
This whole thing is laughable. If Chinese citizens know how to get around The Great Chinese Fire Wall, anybody from Montana who wants to watch TikTok will.
Also laughable is the governor’s comment “using TikTok to spy on Americans, violate their privacy, and collect their personal, private, and sensitive information.” Could we replace “TikTok with any social media in that statement?
The people in the state government of Montana are either totally ignorant or just trying to make political hay. I suspect the latter.
All I can say to Montana lawmakers is good luck with that.
Nice try, Montana. Will the cyber police come to high schools to check everyones’ phones?
The internet knows no borders.
This state ban will irritate Montana’s younger cohorts and the companies that rely on TikTok to reach them.
Other states will watch for a backlash in Montana or demand for more bans.
I have to confess, I don’t get all the TikTok fears. Apple doesn’t release iOS apps unless they’ve been certified, and there is no information (beyond an email address) I had to give TikTok to join and actually, I can watch things without even signing in.
So not only is this a Quixotic battle, it’s also one I can’t figure out for the life of me.
Give it up. The thing is viral If there are concerns, put better guard rails around it.
I love it…”Quixotic battle”. I admit I steal your creative quotes.
This is true. You don’t have to sign up to use the app to watch the videos. Same for Facebook(mostly) or Pinterest, etc. While I get the rationale, this becomes a slippery slope example for all social media.
The backlash against social media and big content providers will pick up steam, in my opinion. Will more states ban TikTok? You can count on it. Should they? A state-level ban will be impossible to enforce. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a federal-level ban in the future.
Meanwhile, Utah just enacted legislation to ban any minor from using social media without parental consent. The verification process is onerous, parents have to fill in forms for every app their kid wants to access. I’m sure no one will find a way around that. I’ll be interested to see how enforcement goes. And this isn’t a one-off. Connecticut, Ohio, Arkansas, and Texas have bills working their way through their legislatures to do the same thing.
Meanwhile, while we worry about social media stealing our deets, lawmakers at the moment are looking the other way while shopping apps like Temu and their sister company Pinduoduo have been found planting malware on user’s phones and actively bypassing privacy settings to gather data about users social interactions, emails, photos and more.
Is TicTok the malicious spyware app that some would paint it to be? I don’t think so. Are there real issues with apps stealing data and acting on behalf of foreign actors? I believe where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
Hey Gary!can you show me some documented evidence that those companies are doing that? I choose not to download the Temu app anyway, but I’m even trying to find the smoke. So far, the only documented clear evidence is Facebook and Cambridge Analytica (and of course, google follows everything)
A TikTok ban is a doomed strategy by the state of Montana. TikTok has become the preeminent social media app in a very short time. A prohibition on TikTok at the state level is almost impossible to execute as Apple and Android-based devices are not managed for individual states. Additionally, a ban on TikTok, which is such an outstanding forum for expressing new ideas, concepts, stories, and engagement that spans generations, completely violates the freedom of speech.
TikTok has to enable far more detailed privacy and data-sharing regulations to provide a sense of comfort, security, and transparency for its user community and US government officials. There have been discussions around TikTok establishing a US-based business and legal entity, which includes preventing the user data from going offshore.
With these capabilities in place, the sense of concern and fears will be mitigated, as a ban on TikTok sets an unfortunate precedence for all social media apps moving forward.
Let’s set TikTok aside for a moment and consider the more generic question of what happens when one or more states ban, or more correctly try to ban, any social media platform. In the case of just one state passing a law that’s no problem because it is inane and totally unenforceable. But, if say 34 states began enacting similar legislation, the picture changes. There are two components of “Big Tech” success.The first is obviously technology, and the second is “Bigness” or scale.The Balkanization, or attempted Balkanization, of social media – assume ing there were substantial efforts to enforce said Balkanization – could make it very expensive to maintain scale. But, for the time being Montana lawmakers need to consider “ITIS” – It’s The Internet Stupid – the digital version of KISS. And, yes, ITIS nearly impossible to police.
I don’t think anyone understands how this is going to work in practice.
I wish we’d shift the energy focused on social media away from banning apps and unsubstantiated claims of data theft, to figuring out how we can keep social media but without a negative impact on users’ mental health.
Of all of the comments so far, no one has answered the question asked by the article? Will more states ban Tik Tok? the answer is yes. And it has bi-partisan support.
I wonder if Presidential candidates will need to explicitly state their position on this issue over the next year. Sadly, I think it could be something that tips some young voters one way or the other.
This should be struck down as unconstitutional. It is the thin end of the wedge. If government can ban TikTok then, in theory, it can ban any form of communication it sees as risky. Government should simply not have that power.
Neil, a short and sweet comment and frighteningly true.
Seldom has a question been so easy to answer.
States will watch Montana closely for the potential fallout and legal challenges to better understand the ramifications of taking this stand. Others states may contemplate it, especially as the presidential election looms on the horizon, and this type of grandstanding increases in frequency and magnitude.
Trying to ban TikTok or any social media for that matter, will prove to be as impossible as catching smoke. Just a fools game.
People who try to ban TikTok are generally those who also believe in “alternate facts” of their own choosing. That being the case, I am sure more states will try to follow Montana’s “lead” in this embarrassing attempt at herding cats (or catching smoke). And, with the country heading in such strange directions now, I am sure we won’t be hearing the last of this sort of thing for some time to come — a likely prospect which I find unsettling.
With the TikTok ban in Montana, the free speech of hundreds of thousands of people, who use the app to express themselves, gather information, and run their small business have been impacted. More than half of states have banned TikTok on government devices and more states are likely to exercise the ban citing anti-Chinese sentiment and security reasons.
TikTok bans will have significant ramifications for brands and retailers that have benefited from free user-generated content in the form of “haul” videos that appeal to Gen Z consumers and younger Millennials.
All political. An nothing is uglier than copying the tactics of the system you claim to ne the opposite of.
Will other states try to ban TikTok? Almost certainly. Will they succeed? No. Putting aside other social media platforms’ claims about “free speech”, this one clearly fits the legal definitions. This isn’t something a state can successfully do. In addition to free speech and communication claims, I am sure TikTok’s legal team is contemplating how this violates interstate commerce. Could this provide some steam to a federal ban? Possibly – and that’s also rather questionable if it can stand up in court. As others here have mentioned, there are more dangerous things happening in social media, including TikTok, related to mental health of teens and others than the alleged security and privacy concerns. For that matter, why can’t these governments focus their attention on good privacy laws and requirements for app-based services like this rather than outright bans. A ban like this is most likely a political maneuver more so than anything related to good legislative practice.
This isn’t about banning TikTok, it’s about restricting access on state-owned devices.
That’s exactly why we have work phones, so we can keep our personal and professional lives separate.
Most of what is posted on Tik Tok is probably not the “intelligence” that China is looking for. When China wants to spy on us, they will launch a balloon that gathers all that they need, and our president won’t shoot it down until it reaches the Atlantic.
Besides, legislators are naïve in the states where Tik Tok will be banned. A kid in Montana will have no problem getting on. They will not be denied access.
Not sure if this is getting tested on a state level, with the hopes of building a wave of support across the country. I think trying to implement this at the state level is futile. I am also concerned about the impact on freedom and choice. If it has profound implications for security and safety, it should be addressed at the source, not state by state.