On Wednesday, Montana governor Greg Gianforte banned apps he claims are “tied to foreign adversaries and operating in the US,” from government devices, citing Telegram, Temu, WeChat, and TikTok owner Bytedance’s CapCut and Lemon8 as examples. This follows Montana’s TikTok ban announced the same day.
According to a recent annual report released by data.ai, consumer spending on apps decreased 2% to $167 billion last year, signaling the first-ever slowdown in the global app economy. Downloads were also up 11% year over year, giving the impression that app adoption was still happening and was being particularly fueled by emerging markets. However, …