World News | United States: Montana is one step closer to banning “TikTok”

Helena (Montana) [US]April 14 (ANI): The US state of Montana is one step closer to a blanket ban on Chinese-owned video-sharing platform “TikTok,” with the House of Representatives passing proposed restrictions on the mobile app on Thursday (local time), Montana Take the Standard newspaper.

On Thursday, 69 people in the Republican-led Legislature in the Montana State Assembly voted in favor of banning TikTok, while 39 voted against.

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Senate Bill 419 would ban Apple and Google’s app stores from offering TikTok in the state and envisages fines of tens of thousands of dollars for companies that violate its terms.

The Republican-led legislature’s focus on the social media company appears to be as much a tai chi for China as it is for privacy concerns. In the House of Commons, Representative Brandon Ler said they faced threats from the Chinese Communist Party hiding behind TikTok.

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“We know the ROC is one of our top adversaries, but we allow them to freely collect information about Montana, Montana companies, and the intellectual property of their users,” he added.

Democrats argue that the bill is too narrow and that if the real concern is companies extracting user data, it should ban any social media company that does so. Rep. Katie Sullivan of Missoula also pointed to the state constitution’s provisions on local and special legislation, which, by Montana standards, state that the legislature cannot pass special or special legislation when it can enact general acts. local act.

“I don’t think this bill as written takes privacy seriously,” Sullivan said. “We’re very aware that social media companies are doing the same thing, other companies, they’re selling, trading and using Montanans’ data and send it to servers located all over the world.”

During Thursday’s floor debate, Sullivan proposed an amendment that would expand the bill’s ban to any social media company that shares user data with a foreign adversary. The amendment failed in a 48-51 vote, the Montana Standard reported.

Earlier, TikTok CEO Shouzi Zhou testified before the U.S. Congress over growing security concerns and possible Chinese government influence over the company. He faces hostile questioning from the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.

U.S. lawmaker Debbie Lesco cited in her questioning that India and other countries have recently banned TikTok in some form.

“This (TikTok) is a tool that is ultimately controlled by the Chinese government and is calling out Mr. Chew on a national security issue, how could all these countries and our FBI director be wrong?” Lescoe asked.

Zhou Shouzi responded, “I think many of the risks pointed out are hypothetical and theoretical risks, and I have not seen any evidence.”

The Congresswoman once again reiterated and highlighted India’s decision to ban TikTok.

“India banned TikTok in 2020. On March 21, a Forbes article revealed how the data of Indian citizens using TikTok was still accessible to employees of the company and its Beijing parent company. A current TikTok employee told Forbes, Almost anyone with basic access to the company’s tools can easily find any user’s recent contacts and other sensitive information,” Lesko told her colleagues. (Arnie)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)