HELENA, MT – Governor Greg Gianforte on Jan 17th, released the following statement in response to a unanimous ruling from the United States Supreme Court to uphold the federal law to ban TikTok:

“The U.S. Supreme Court did right by the American people by upholding the law requiring TikTok to divest from ByteDance and the Chinese Communist Party. China has used TikTok to spy on Americans, violate their privacy, and collect their personal, private, and sensitive information. Montana was proud to be the first state in the nation to protect Montanans by banning the app. We will continue to protect our citizens from foreign adversaries who are trying to spy on them and steal their personal data.”

To protect Montanans’ personal, private, and sensitive data and information from intelligence gathering by the Chinese Communist Party, the governor signed Senate Bill 419 in 2023, making Montana the first state in the nation to ban TikTok and prohibit mobile application stores from offering TikTok within the state.

The governor previously directed the state’s chief information officer and executive agency directors to prohibit the use of all social media applications tied to foreign adversaries on state equipment and for state business in Montana.