EDITORIAL: Censoring Social Media...for Adults

On Friday, April 14 Montana became the first American state to ban TikTok after the Montana House of Representatives voted 54-43 to ban TikTok from all personal smartphones and tech devices within the state.

SB419 is not in effect quite yet, as it must be signed by Gianforte. However, Gianforte has previously banned TikTok from all state-owned official government devices; in January of this year, he publicly urged the Montana University System to follow suit with their own administrative TikTok ban for official educational devices — which it did.

This new law as passed would prohibit TikTok from operating anywhere within Montana state lines. That also means the app would be barred from app stores within the state and unavailable for download by people living within Montana’s borders. Per multiple media reports, penalties for TikTok, if it were to operate in Montana, would range “up to $10,000 per violation per day.”

Carl Szabo, who is the vice president of a technology industry group called NetChoice, asserted SB419 is unconstitutional because it goes against America’s prohibition of “bills of attainder,” which is legislation aimed at making illegal a specific person or company.

“This move from the Montana legislature sets a dangerous precedent that the government can try to ban any business it doesn’t like without clear evidence of wrongdoing. The US Constitution clearly forbids lawmakers from passing laws to criminalize a specific individual or business. Gov. Greg Gianforte should veto this clearly unconstitutional law.”

This makes Montana the first US state to take such stark action against the Chinese-owned social media app.

And I get it, ban TikTok from state-owned equipment. There’s a risk of a security breach - plus, should government/state employees be using that equipment to access social media in the first place? Probably not.

Ban it for teenagers who are impressionable and don’t benefit from TikTok challenges and the peer pressure created by social media. All for it.

However, I am against censoring a social media app being used by ADULTS. TikTok is a great marketing tool for events, products, and the like. If I’m using my own device, purchased with my own money, I should be able to look at and research whatever I want. Maybe we need to look into better tracking the information distributed through TikTok, if we’re going with the conspiracy theories, instead of banning a useful app altogether. Next up it will be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our own email - because none of these things is 100% made and authorized in the United States, which leads to just one more conspiracy theory to take into consideration.