Lawmakers in the state of Montana passed a bill on Friday to block downloads of the Chinese app Tik Tok.
This bill will make it illegal for app stores to give users the option to download it and also for the company to operate within the state, as reported by the U.S. media NBC News.
However, it does not make it illegal for people who already have Tik Tok to use the app. An earlier version of the bill sought to force Internet providers to block Tik Tok, but this point was later removed.
Now all that remains is for it to be signed by Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, who has previously banned the use of the app on official devices.
Once all the formalities are completed, this bill will be the first to be formalized in a state in the country and will come into force in 2024.
This news comes in the midst of an ongoing dispute between the United States and China over the application that has been going on for more than two years due to the North American country’s doubts regarding the protection of its more than 100 million users’ data.
In February of this year, the U.S. Administration ordered the removal of the application from all official phone devices. A decision that the Chinese government ridiculed: »How does the world’s leading superpower have to be to be afraid of young people’s favorite app?».
Already in March, the U.S. government demanded that the company that owns the popular Tik Tok app, the Chinese company ByteDance, distribute its shares if it wants to continue operating in its territory.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
