Montana lawmakers on Friday gave final approval to a bill that would ban the social media app TikTok from operating in the state, a move that no doubt poses legal challenges but also serves as a testing ground for TikTok-free America. envisaged by many national legislators.

The measure now goes to the Republican government. Greg Gianforte for his attention.

The state House voted 54

Unpleasant –

43 to pass the bill, which goes beyond bans in place in nearly half of the states and the US federal government that ban TikTok on government devices. Montana already bans the app on state devices.

TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said in a statement that we will continue to fight for TikTok users and creators in Montana whose livelihoods and First Amendment rights are threatened by this blatant government overreach.

The bill’s supporters have admitted they have no viable plan to operationalize this effort to censor American votes and that the constitutionality of the bill will be decided by the courts, Oberwetter said.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese technology company ByteDance, is under intense scrutiny over concerns it could hand over user data to the Chinese government or spread pro-Beijing propaganda and misinformation on the platform. Leaders of the FBI, the CIA, and numerous legislators from both sides have expressed these concerns, but have not produced any evidence that this has happened.

For some, TikTok is a path to wealth and the American dream. With a ban, it could all go away

Proponents of a ban point to two Chinese laws that force companies in the country to cooperate with the government in state intelligence work.

TikTok has said its servers containing information about US users are located in Texas.