For several years, officials at the highest level of government in the United States have threatened to ban the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok. This week, Montana became the first state to actually do it. On Wednesday, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed Senate Bill 419 into law, which prohibits the use of TikTok anywhere in the Treasure State. In a statement, Gianforte justified the law by saying it protects citizens and businesses in Montana from purported data collection efforts by TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, at the request of the Chinese government. .stk-444292f{box-shadow:0 0 0 2px rgba(120,120,120,0.1) !important}.stk-444292f-container{background-color:#f3f3f3 !important}.stk-444292f-container:before{background-color:#f3f3f3 !important} .stk-fff85bd{margin-left:-20px !important}.stk-fff85bd .stk–svg-wrapper .stk–inner-svg svg:last-child{opacity:0.7 !important}.stk-fff85bd .stk–svg-wrapper .stk–inner-svg svg:last-child,.stk-fff85bd .stk–svg-wrapper .stk–inner-svg svg:last-child :is(g,path,rect,polygon,ellipse){fill:var(–stk-global-color-56583,#911d9c) !important} .stk-75422ff{margin-left:-17px !important}.stk-75422ff .stk-block-text__text{font-size:16px !important;font-weight:300 !important;font-style:normal !important;font-family:”Golos Text”,Sans-serif !important}@media screen and (max-width:1023px){.stk-75422ff .stk-block-text__text{font-size:16px !important}}Today, Montana takes the most decisive action of any state to protect Montanans’ private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party, Gianfonte said. However, he didn’t provide direct evidence to support the notion that TikTok or ByteDance has ever passed information on to Chinese government officials. But that line of thinking has been used by federal officials and some lawmakers in other states, who have called for TikTok to be banned if ByteDance doesn’t divest the service to a party outside the control of the Chinese government. ByteDance officials have long said the company doesn’t pass information about its users to the Chinese government. However, some ByteDance employees have been caught spying on American journalists through TikTok…Montana outright banned TikTok for everyone — is that legal?