Republican lawmakers in Montana have passed an unprecedented bill to ban social media app TikTok in the state.

Bill SB 419 prohibits mobile app stores from offering TikTok for download to users in the state. Lawmakers in the Montana House voted 54-43 to approve the ban, though it remains unclear how the state would enforce it.

Should the bill become law – which it will do if and when Montana governor Greg Gianforte signs it – TikTok, Apple and Google could face fines for violating the ban.

In a statement, TikTok said that it would “continue to fight for TikTok users and creators in Montana whose livelihoods and First Amendment rights are threatened by this egregious government overreach."

TikTok and parent company ByteDance have faced scrutiny from US lawmakers over data usage and specifically potential Chinese government influence over the app. This was denied by TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew, who appeared before a congressional committee last month.

The company is currently developing what it has dubbed ‘Project Texas’ – a standalone entity which would store US user data on local servers operated by Oracle.

The move from the Montana legislature is an unprecedented attack on freedom of speech in the modern age, with this being the first time that a US state has voted to ban a social media platform.

Critics of the scrutiny facing TikTok have theorised that Facebook owner Meta is lobbying for a ban. At a time when Meta’s platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram have been identified as hotbeds of far-right extremism in the US, it has emerged that Meta has been paying Targeted Victory, one of the biggest Republican consulting firms in the US, to orchestrate a nationwide astroturfing campaign against the Chinese TikTok. Meta has since defended its usage of the strategist.

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