Congrats, People Of Montana: Your Governor Is About To Blow A Ton Of Taxpayer Money On An Unconstitutional TikTok Ban

Free Speech

from the culture-wars-are-the-opposite-of-leadership dept

“Constitutional originalists” and “fiscally conservative” Republican governors sure are having a moment these days throwing away millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars on totally unconstitutional laws that take away people’s 1st Amendment rights. It’s quite uncanny. Florida’s Ron DeSantis seems to be taking the lead here, where it seems like every other day or so he’s losing cases in court, and then turning around and passing even more ridiculously unconstitutional bills.

I recognize that Greg Abbott in Texas is trying desperately to keep up with DeSantis, but that doesn’t mean other hypocritical governors can’t play along as well. Enter Montana governor Greg Gianforte, a former tech exec, who’s probably most famous for throwing a journalist to the ground after disliking the journalist’s questions. The people of Montana still elected him after that, first to Congress and then as governor, suggesting they actually like electing people who stomp on free speech rights.

But now it’s likely to cost them a ton of taxpayer money.

That’s because Gianforte has now signed into law the blatantly, ridiculously, hilariously, obviously unconstitutional ban on TikTok. The bill was literally called “Ban tik-tok in Montana.” Anyway, we wrote about all the ways in which it was unconstitutional last month. And, originally, Gianforte sent it back to the Montana legislature with demands that they change it in a manner that would have (inadvertently, I think?) banned all social media for people in Montana.

Of course, even with his request back to the legislature, Gianforte demonstrated his supreme incompetence, as the “amendatory veto” was apparently sent back to the legislature too late for them to actually do anything about it.

So, instead, he just went ahead this week and signed the blatantly unconstitutional bill into law. The law (in theory) would go into effect in January of next year, and fine TikTok for existing in the state, as well as Google and Apple if they let people in Montana download the app to their phones.

In signing it he laughably claimed that he’s “protecting Montanans’ personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party.”

Except, of course, he’s done no such thing. He’s trampled on the 1st Amendment rights of Montanans and put their data at much greater risk. That’s because the law will require geographic tracking by TikTok, Apple, and Google to a much more significant degree than exists currently, just to figure out who is in Montana and who is not. So, by setting up this ban, he’s forcing these companies to collect more data than they otherwise would, putting that data at much greater risk.

On top of that, if China wants that data, they can just buy it from American data brokers, because we have basically nothing in place to stop them. Banning TikTok does literally nothing to help here, other than rile up some brainwashed boomers who think that China is spying on Americans through an app kids use to share dance moves.

The ACLU has already put out a statement calling out what a blatant violation of the public’s rights this law is.

“With this ban, Governor Gianforte and the Montana legislature have trampled on the free speech of hundreds of thousands of Montanans who use the app to express themselves, gather information, and run their small business in the name of anti-Chinese sentiment,” said Keegan Medrano, policy director at the ACLU of Montana. “We will never trade our First Amendment rights for cheap political points.”

This law stands basically no chance of surviving a run through the courts, and all it’s going to do is suck up a ton of Montanans’ taxpayer dollars, wasted on lawyers who are going to lose.

This isn’t protecting anyone’s privacy. It’s stomping on their rights, all so Gianforte can fight a fake culture war. It seems to be all the GOP has these days. Grievances, nonsense, and culture wars. How pathetic.

Filed Under: 1st amendment, greg gianforte, montana, taxpayer money, tiktok ban
Companies: tiktok