Lawmakers in Washington are pushing for an outright ban on TikTok on US soil. Montana could beat them.
The state Legislature is further along than any other body in the United States in passing a ban on the popular Chinese-owned video app, which has faced scrutiny over whether it is handing over sensitive data about Americans to Beijing. A Montana bill to block the app was introduced in February and passed the state Senate last month. It is expected to face a vote in the House of Representatives as soon as this week and has a good chance of passing.
Along the way, the proposal has encountered obstacles. A major internet provider said he couldn’t block TikTok in Montana, prompting lawmakers to rewrite the legislation. A trade group funded by Apple and Google, which operates the app stores that would be banned from carrying the app, also stated that it was impossible for companies to block access to TikTok in a single state.
And the lobbying has been intense. Critics of China have appeared at the hearings in support of the bill. To fight back, TikTok has pressured its users to oppose the legislation by calling and emailing Republican Montana Governor Greg Gianforte. A spokeswoman for Gianforte said he would “carefully consider any bill the Legislature sends to his desk,” noting that he had already banned TikTok on state-run devices.
The fight in Montana is a preview of what the United States could face domestically if lawmakers or the White House try to enact a national ban on TikTok. Even if legislation disallowing the app is passed, carrying out a ban is technologically difficult and would involve companies from across the digital economy.
TikTok could fuel a backlash among its 150 million US users. And any ban is likely to face legal challenges, as courts rejected an attempt by President Donald J. Trump to block TikTok in 2020.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, whose office wrote the bill, acknowledged that enacting a state ban on TikTok would be difficult.
“We are under no illusions that this will not be challenged,” he said in an interview. “I think this is the next frontier in First Amendment jurisprudence that will probably have to come from the United States Supreme Court. And I think that’s probably where this is headed.”
The proposed ban would go into effect in 2024.
The moves in Montana are part of an escalating tech cold war between the US and China, with TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, caught in the middle.
Last month, members of Congress grilled Shou Chew, TikTok’s chief executive, for about five hours about whether the app could provide data to the Chinese government or be used to spread propaganda. In the past five years, US officials have also cut off Chinese telecommunications companies from major providers, subsidized US manufacturers to compete with Asian chipmakers and forced a Chinese company to sell the dating app Grindr.
Brooke Oberwetter, a spokeswoman for TikTok, said in a statement that there were “thousands of TikTok creators and users in Montana” who “deserve to have a seat at the table in any conversation that affects them and their livelihoods.” TikTok has denied giving user data to the Chinese government.
Knudsen, a Republican, said his team had received dozens of complaints from parents about TikTok content that referenced drugs, suicide or pornography. As this year’s state legislative session approached, his office began to mull the idea of banning the app entirely.
The political environment is favorable to a ban. Montana residents already protect their personal privacy, state politicians said. Then, in early February, a Chinese spy balloon passed over the state, drawing national attention and raising concerns about spying by Beijing.
“Frankly, the Chinese did us a favor by floating that spy balloon over Montana when they did it,” Knudsen said. After his office wrote the bill, state Sen. Shelley Vance, a Republican, introduced it on February 20.
The first version of the proposal, which included fines for Internet service providers and app stores if they helped distribute the app, as well as TikTok if it continued to operate in the state, drew little attention when the State Business Senate, Work and Economy. The Foreign Affairs Committee considered it on February 27.
At one point in that hearing, an AT&T lobbyist stood up and announced that the company was opposed to the bill. He said it was “not feasible” for internet service providers to put a ban on TikTok into effect. He said AT&T was discussing a change with the bill’s sponsors that would allow the company to withdraw its opposition to the measure.
Lawmakers removed any mention of internet providers like AT&T when the state Senate passed the legislation a week later.
By March, TikTok had hired two lobbyists in the state and was running ads showing small Montana businesses using TikTok. The application also began to mobilize its users.
“We need your help to prevent the Montana State Legislature from taking away your right to use TikTok,” the company said in an email posted to a user feed. The company gave users a prewritten email that they could send to Mr. Gianforte who was opposing the bill. He sent a similar warning to users via a notification within his mobile app, according to another post on TikTok.
The House Judiciary Committee considered the bill, which still required Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their stores, at a March 28 hearing.
App stores often recall products. The TikTok ban could also prevent stores from distributing updates to the app, slowly making the service more difficult for users who had already downloaded it. But at the hearing, a representative from TechNet, a trade group whose members include Apple and Google, said it would be “impossible” to restrict TikTok on a state-by-state basis.
Apple and Google declined to comment.
State Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a Democrat, said in an interview that it was possible TikTok users could disguise their location to maintain access to the app even after a ban, which could also be difficult to enforce in border cities where Internet connections may involve cell phones. towers in another state.
But TikTok’s skepticism ran deep in the audience. Keith Krach, a former corporate executive behind some of the Trump administration’s efforts to sideline Chinese companies, testified that he would not let his 11-year-old twins anywhere near the app. He said that he was “disguised as candy, but it’s really cocaine.”
“Would you agree with me that TikTok is the music that the Pied Piper plays to steal the hearts and minds of this generation?” asked Rep. Neil Duram, a Republican, as Mrs. Zephyr, sitting next to him, burst out laughing.
“I’m not sure, a little bit, what you mean,” responded Keegan Medrano, policy director for the Montana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes the bill. An exchange post of him quickly garnered 70,000 likes on TikTok. Mr. Duram went on to ask Medrano if he would agree that “this generation” was, via TikTok, choosing the Chinese Communist Party “as their new god.”
Medrano said in an interview that the bill could have an impact on discourse, possibly making it harder for people to discuss topics like “alternative views on vaccines” or “revolutionary moments in other countries.”
Mr. Knudsen said the bill concerned “an enemy superpower nation collecting personal information from Montanans” and that he was poised for a legal fight.
“I think all of these are questions that probably need the courts to step in here,” he said. “We didn’t just break this legislation in any way without thinking about it.”