Voted by 54 votes in favor (with 43 votes against), SB419 must still be signed into law by the Republican governor of this northwestern state of the country, which has a little more than a million inhabitants.

Like many Democratic and Republican congressional lawmakers, Montana officials believe the short, entertaining video platform, frequented by 150 million Americans, allows Beijing to spy on and manipulate users.

The text orders mobile app stores (Apple and Google) to stop distributing TikTok from January 1, 2024.

Montana becomes the first US state to pass a law to ban TikTok. But it will certainly be challenged in court, and is unlikely to be applied as is.

"The constitutionality of this text will be decided in the courts. We will continue to fight for TikTok users and creators in Montana," a spokeswoman for the app said before the vote.

"It's time to stand up to the Chinese and ban TikTok," Republican Representative Brandon Ler said Thursday after an indictment of China, which "wants our data and our intellectual property," and a dangerous application for "health and safety, especially for the youngest."

'Lack of expertise'

"TikTok enables and promotes dangerous challenges, such as throwing objects at moving vehicles or consuming too much medication," he added.

Democratic lawmakers opposed to the new law argued during a debate Thursday that many of the criticisms made to TikTok in terms of data privacy, misinformation or adverse health effects (addiction, depression, etc.) also apply to other social networks.

"There is a huge gap between the very serious issues of this subject (...) and the lack of expertise of this assembly," Zephyr said.

The representative pointed out that Montana residents will still be able to download the app simply by approaching the border with neighboring states or by using a VPN (virtual private network), which allows access to the internet from another location.

"The ban on TikTok is unconstitutional in terms of free speech, impractical since it exempts internet service providers and VPNs, and driven by anti-Chinese bias," Keegan Medrano, an official with the local branch of the powerful civil rights group ACLU, tweeted Wednesday.

The text mentions fines for offending companies, but not for users. Apple and Google did not immediately respond to AFP's requests for comment.

The law would be struck down if TikTok was acquired by a company from a country "not considered an enemy" of the United States.

One balloon too many

The White House recently urged TikTok to look for this type of solution -- a takeover by a U.S. company -- if it wants to be able to stay in the United States.

Trade and political tensions with China have fueled animosity toward the Chinese government among elected officials and the public for months.

The February flyby of a Chinese balloon supposedly spy, especially over Montana, did not help matters.

"I don't know if this law would have passed if it hadn't happened," said Andrew Selepak, a media professor at the University of Florida.

Joe Biden's administration is discussing with Congress several bills to ban the application, including the "RESTRICT Act".

But this latest bill, unlike the one passed in Montana, goes far beyond banning TikTok, notes Andrew Selepak: "It gives the government more powers to monitor Americans' activities on social networks. I think bills focused solely on TikTok are more likely to succeed."

TikTok has for years denied accusations of espionage by China through it.

Auditioned in March in Washington by intractable elected officials, the boss of the company, Shou Chew, highlighted the means deployed to store all the data of American users only in the United States.

"We don't believe you," Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the chair of a powerful parliamentary committee, told him. "ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese Communist Party, and ByteDance and TikTok are the same."

© 2023 AFP