Montana’s TikTok Ban Threatens Free Speech In The Name Of ‘Beating China’

Governor Greg Gianforte (R) of Montana yesterday banned the use of TikTok in his state. The move is ostensibly intended to thwart the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but it seems similar to restraints used by Beijing to (more effectively) control digital speech. A group of TikTok users has already filed a lawsuit against the ban on the basis that it violates the First Amendment.

China has blocked foreign apps such as Facebook and Google since the establishment of the “Great Firewall” over two decades ago. Limiting free speech by de-platforming Montana’s 200,000 TikTok users doesn’t help the United States protect American privacy–nor, for that matter, does it help the U.S. win its long-term battle with China. Instead, it represents an instance of, in the words of political scientist and professor at Cornell University Jessica Chen-Weiss, attempting to “out-China China.”

Enacted and proposed blanket bans on TikTok would affect America’s 150 million active users, some of whom have come to rely on the app for everything from making a living to seeking the emotional support offered by online communities. Completley blocking their access to a particular social media app based on fears about China goes too far in stifling both individual expression and economic competition.

“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,” Gianforte said in a statement. That may be true, but Montanans could fairly follow up by asking their governor how he plans to protect them from U.S. firms’ ongoing data harvesting practices.

Compared to many Western social media platforms, TikTok has faced more scrutiny, including CEO Shou Zi Chew’s memorable testimony to Congress, where he was chewed out by representatives who had clearly already made up their minds about China and, seemingly by extension, TikTok. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) told Chew: “We do not trust TikTok will ever embrace American values. Your platform should be banned.”

Keegan Medrano, policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Montana, said Wednesday that the governor and Montana Legislature had, “trampled on the free speech of hundreds of thousands of Montanans,” and they did so, “in the name of anti-Chinese sentiment.” The ACLU wrote a letter to the Montana House of Representatives last month opposing the ban on the grounds that it is a direct affront to the First Amendment.

That Amendment is far more convincingly representative of “American values” than the governor’s decision to ban a platform millions of people in this country use to express themselves on a daily basis.

In another ironic twist (the TikTok saga carries many), all the scrutiny the app has received has forced it to conjure a proposed plan for operating within the United States that ensures it abides to strict standards on data localization and other transparency measures its Silicon Valley competitors have yet to follow—let alone conceptualize and draft.

Countries around the world had already banned TikTok from government devices. It is understandable that states would opt to restrict how the people and phones working in the public sector interact with foreign apps. While many tech firms de-prioritize security, TikTok’s ties to China raise the stakes of its at-times questionable data center management. The U.S. needs higher levels of scrutiny on data privacy across the board, and TikTok is no exception. But blanket bans on all users carry no such security justification or limitation to professional use.

Instead, they are by-products of a political climate wherein U.S. politicians invoke “China” as a catch-all term that simplifies a complicated country with a mammoth population and economy in order to score quick political points. The best China policy starts with bolstering the intrinsic attributes of the United States. Free speech is top among them.