The groups were involved with the legal fight over the Montana Ban
Social media bans are national security threats, but how do they work? How many people in Montana are battling the idea that Twitter doesn’t care about it?
Montana’s ban won’t take effect for months, so federal lawmakers could move fast enough to moot its effects. But for now, it’s a signal that politicians have few qualms about wiping a popular social network off Americans’ phones.
The government cannot impose a ban on a social media platform unless there is an immediate threat to national security. The American Civil Liberties Union claims there isn’t enough proof to support the idea that TikTok is a national security threat.
Montana’s governor signed a bill prohibiting TikTok within the state, becoming the first in the United States to do so. The bill demands mobile app stores make the app unavailable for Montana residents and prohibits Tik Tok from operating within the territorial jurisdiction of Montana.
Some of these challenges have caused real-world harm but others have gained infamy because they were warned about by well-intentioned outsiders. “Cooking chicken in NyQuil,” for instance, was a viral joke that only began trending more broadly when the Food and Drug Administration amplified it with a bulletin. TikTok is also far from the only place where people encourage each other to do stupid things online. And Montana lawmakers aren’t banning YouTube or Facebook… because protecting speech you find distasteful or dangerous is a pretty key element of the First Amendment.
Throwing objects at moving cars, taking excessive amounts of medication, lighting a mirror on fire, and then attempting to extinguish it using only one’s body parts are just some of the things that have been done.
The Internet and the Bill of Attainder: How to Attack the Chinese Communist Party and the Internet and Protect Our Privacy, Privacy, and Privacy
The Chinese Communist Party using TikTok to spy on Americans, violate their privacy, and collect their personal, private, and sensitive information is well documented. Montana is the only state that protects its citizens from having their information stolen by the Chinese Communist Party.
NetChoice believes that the bill of attainder is a regulation that accuses a particular entity of a crime and punishes them without a trial. It contends that the law violates the First Amendment by limiting Americans ability to share and receive constitutionally-protected speech online.
No penalties are applied to users of TikTok. The fines for each violation are $10,000 per day, and can be imposed on app store operators and TikTok itself.
The step towards a new kind of internet, which is more safety and security focused, is a huge one. The law won’t kick in until at least September, if it happens at all. Here are the things that are going on.
And then soon enough, it’s just going to be more government control. It’s going to have a huge effect on our freedom of speech, free press and media. It is going to lead to far worse problems than we need to be.
What is a Montanan? A Comment on the Internet Privacy and Security of a 20-Year-old Mantleman’s Twitter Following
Who is he? A 20-year old born and bred Montanan is called Christian W. Poole. He’s a merchandiser for Pepsi by day, but Poole has also amassed a hefty social media following, mainly on TikTok.
NetChoice, a trade group that counts TikTok as a member and has sued in the past to block state laws targeting tech companies, also said in a statement that the ban violated the Constitution. Krista Chavez said that NetChoice didn’t currently have plans to challenge the law.
Ramya Krishnan, a lawyer at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said the Constitution protected Americans’ right to access social media platforms of their choosing. To justify a ban, Ms. Krishnan said, Montana would have to show that its privacy and security concerns were real and that they could not be addressed in narrower ways.
