elections and spying. again, tiktok disagrees. we will firewall protect the u.s. data from unwanted foreign access. tiktok will remain a place for free expression and will not be manipulated by any government. reporter: some suggest worries about tiktok are overblown. it poses about the same threat that companies like facebook and instagram and youtube and twitter pose. reporter: and free speech advocates see a big court battle brewing. the ban is compblatantly unconstitutional. it s an act of political theater. it is rooted in xenophobia. and it is trampling on the free speech rights of hundreds of thousands of people in montana. unless a court steps in montana s ban will go into effect next january, and it contains no provisions for punishing individual users, only companies providing access to tiktok. still, tech folks say enforcing
in our tech lead today, montana has become the very first state in the u.s. to ban tiktok outright. the state s governor, greg gianforte, signed the bill into law last flight. he said it will protect montmontes private data from the chinese communist party. but as cnn s tom foreman reports, the aclu is already arguing this is a blatant violation of the first amendment. my money don t jiggle jiggle it fields i like to see you wiggle wiggle reporter: nearly half the country, 150 million americans, turn to tiktok for inspiration, information and entertainment. but now montana is turning it off, banning the app and potentially slapping $10,000 a day fines on app stores making
this ban could prove difficult, in particular because the united states doesn t really have a framework for this kind of stepping on the internet like, say, for example, china. it s difficult to see how it s constitutional. and difficult to see technologically how you d do it. yeah. i should note, by the way, just because i ve been outspoken about this on the show, i have reinstated tiktok on a burner phone. i do take the national security concerns seriously about china, the chinese government having access. so i bought a burner phone and i have tiktok on it. and your dance videos are very there are no dance videos. that s fake news. tom foreman, thanks very much. appreciate it. joining us now to discuss democratic senator michael bennet of colorado. he s a member of the senate intelligence committee and as well the cybersecurity caucus. senator, good to see you again. you just heard from cnn s tom foreman reporting on montana governor greg gianforte passing this law that w
it available. the governor says with tiktok owned by a chinese company called bytedance the ban is to protect montanans personal and private data from the chinese communist party. tiktok is pushing back saying the chinese government is neither a partner nor party to information in the app. there s never been any kind of proof about any kind of information sharing. we ve steadfastly denied that. reporter: yet big sky country is not alone. more than half of u.s. states have put some restriction on tiktok. for example, by banning it on government devices. many are talking about taking it further. and some federal lawmakers are also up in arms. the chinese communist party is engaged in psychological warfare. through tiktok. to deliberately influence u.s. children. reporter: the chief fear is that the app could serve as a gateway to peddling anti-american ideas, meddling in
resources to ensure they believe they can get the most electable candidate, root out the weaker ones but that s easier said than done. another reason mcconnell thinks montana, west virginia, and pennsylvania good for republicans even if trump is the nominee, because those are strong states for trump. then you look at wisconsin, you look at nevada, arizona, where you have democratic incumbents in what should be a battleground state. why not more confident there? i asked him specifically about that. what about those other states? he left those out, probably because the down ticket impact. he didn t say that explicitly. the down ticket impact could hurt wisconsin, it could hurt them in arizona and michigan. he barely even mentioned in the interview. arizona is such a complicated state for them because of a potential of kyrsten sinema running as a third-party candidate, also a democratic candidate and far right candidates like kari lake and blake masters considering a run