Montana becomes the first US state to introduce a bill that will ban the TikTok app from January 2024.

Bad news for TikTok. Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte has signed a measure banning this app in Montana, making him the first state in the United States to completely ban this social network amid turbulent scrutiny and skepticism from lawmakers.

is planned to enter into force on January 1, 2024 although it is expected to be challenged in court. “Today, Montana is taking the most decisive action of any state to protect the private data and sensitive personal information of Montanans from being collected by the Chinese Communist Party”Gianforte said in a statement.

As expected, TikTok has not been silent and has responded to these harsh accusations. App spokeswoman Brooke Oberwetter called the bill a “illegal” in a statement and said that the application is a platform that “empowers hundreds of thousands of people across the state”.

“We want to assure Montanans that they can continue to use TikTok to express themselves, earn a living, and find community as we continue to work to defend the rights of our users in and outside of Montana”he added.

Montana first US state to ban TikTok over security concerns

The struggle of certain Republican legislators and therefore states governed by these figures has been brewing for some time. While it’s true that both parties have shown concern, there have been a growing number of red states that have issued bans on TikTok on government devices.

As for the ban in Montana, this new law will ban TikTok downloads statewide and will fine any entity $10,000 per day for each time a person in the state is able to access the platform or download the app. This means that the sanctions would not be applied to the users.

All this does not stop here and Greg Gianforte announced that it will also ban the use of all social media apps including WeChat and Telegram linked to “foreign adversaries”.

The truth is that those promises that were made one day and that began timidly with certain prohibitions are gradually coming true.

In 2020, TikTok surpassed 2 billion mobile downloads worldwide and 150 million people are in the US. Now it’s time to wait and see how these bans will be applied and what their impact will be on the creators who use the platform.