Montana is set
to become the first US state to ban Chinese-owned media giant TikTok from
personal devices.
Governor Greg
Gianforte signed the ban into law on Wednesday. It is due to take effect on 1
January.
The
video-sharing platform says the ban "infringes on the First Amendment
rights of the people of Montana".
TikTok has come
under scrutiny from authorities around the world over concerns that data could
be passed to the Chinese government.
Mr Gianforte, a Republican,
told lawmakers that a wider ban would further "our shared priority to
protect Montanans from Chinese Communist Party surveillance."
TikTok said in a
statement that it was used by "hundreds of thousands of people" in
Montana.
"We want to
reassure Montanans that they can continue using TikTok to express themselves,
earn a living, and find community as we continue working to defend the rights
of our users inside and outside of Montana," it added.
TikTok is
expected to challenge the legislation in the courts.
Last month,
lawmakers in Montana passed a bill banning
TikTok on personal devices by a vote of 54 to 43.
The law will
make it illegal for app stores to offer TikTok, but does not ban people who
already have TikTok from using it.
Montana, which
has a population of just over 1m, banned the app on government devices last
December.
TikTok says it
has 150m American users. Although the app's user base has expanded in recent
years, it is still most popular with teenagers and users in their 20s.
However, there
are concerns across the US political spectrum that TikTok could be a national
security risk.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance - a Chinese company.
In March, a
congressional committee grilled TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew about
whether the Chinese government could access user data or influence what
Americans see on the app.
Mr Shou
repeatedly said that it would never spy on Americans - despite admitting that
employees had used the TikTok accounts of journalists to obtain information
about them.
Earlier in
March, the US government said ByteDance should sell TikTok or face a
possible ban in the country.
The penalties
apply to companies, but not individual users. Firms that break the law face
penalties of up to $10,000 (£8,012), which would be enforced by Montana's
Department of Justice.
It means that
technology giants like Apple and Google could face fines if they allow TikTok
to be downloaded in Montana from their app stores.
TikTok's owner
ByteDance has repeatedly denied it is controlled by the Chinese government
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