Montana Becomes 1st State in the Nation to Ban Tik Tok

from AP news: 
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana became the first state in the U.S. to completely ban TikTok on Wednesday when the state’s Republican governor signed a measure that’s more sweeping than any other state’s attempts to curtail the social media app.

The measure is expected to be challenged legally and will serve as a testing ground for the TikTok-free America that many national lawmakers have envisioned.

Some lawmakers, the FBI and officials at other agencies are concerned the video-sharing app, owned by the Chinese tech company ByteDance, could be used to allow the Chinese government to access information on American citizens or push pro-Beijing misinformation that could influence the public. TikTok says none of this has ever happened.

When Montana banned the app on government-owned devices in late December, Gov. Greg Gianforte said TikTok posed a “significant risk” to sensitive state data. More than half of U.S. states and the federal government have a similar ban.