Can't TikTok be used in Montana anymore?

Recently, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed a law that bans TikTok from operating within the state, which is considered the most extreme ban in the United States. The law will take effect on January 1, 2024, and is almost certainly going to face legal challenges. 

Before the law was signed, TikTok released a statement saying that the new law "infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana" and that it will continue to fight for the rights of users inside and outside of Montana. TikTok added: "We want to reassure Montanans that they can continue using TikTok to express themselves, earn a living, and find community as we continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana".

In fact, discussions about banning TikTok have been ongoing for a long time. Then-President Donald Trump tried to issue an executive order banning the company from operating in the United States, but it was blocked by a federal court. President Joe Biden's administration initially shelved these plans, but recently threatened to ban the app if its Chinese owners do not sell their shares. In addition, India banned TikTok in mid-2020, making it one of ByteDance's largest markets to lose.

The reason for banning TikTok is that Western legislators and regulators are increasingly concerned that TikTok and its parent company ByteDance may hand over sensitive user data, such as location information, to the Chinese government. They point out that the law allows the Chinese government to secretly request data from Chinese companies and citizens for intelligence collection. They also worry that China may use TikTok's content recommendations to spread misinformation.

TikTok is trying to prevent the ban from happening. To address American officials' concerns, TikTok has been emphasizing a proposal called Project Texas. TikTok has partnered with Oracle to store all American user data on Oracle-owned and maintained servers. According to the plan, access to American data will be managed by an independent entity called TikTok US Data Security, which is independent of ByteDance and monitored by external observers. TikTok has started deleting all American user history data from non-Oracle servers and expects the process to be completed this year. At a congressional hearing earlier this month, Chew said that moving data to Oracle would keep it away from China.

The Montana law banning TikTok does not specify how it will be implemented, so it may have some difficulties in reality. If the law is implemented, using TikTok will become difficult in Montana. Whether the law can ultimately be successful in implementing will depend on how much legal challenges it faces. However, we should still pay attention to the protection of personal privacy data. Almost all companies provide guarantees for the safety of personal privacy data, but it is still safer to keep it in oneself. Especially in the online life, requests for personal privacy data are ubiquitous. We recommend that you pay attention to protecting your personal privacy data and VPN is an effective privacy protection tool. It is a good idea to use MetroVPN for online activities.