Temu, the governor of Montana, is also going after WeChat and Telegram

In addition to signing a bill into law banning TikTok in the state of Montana, Governor Greg Gianforte Wants to ban other apps from foreign tech companies, Gianforte accused Telegram, WeChat and Teemu of being affiliated with “foreign adversaries” and wants the apps out of Montana.

Gianforte is also going after other apps owned by ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. ByteDance owns CapCut, a popular video editing app, and Lemon8, a social lifestyle app. Teemu is owned by PDD Holdings, and WeChat is owned by Tencent. All of these apps back up in China, which is Gianforte’s biggest gripe with the app.

Too: TikTok Ban Explained: Everything You Need to Know

Gianforte claims Telegram has ties to the Kremlin, but The Verge reported That Telegram has its headquarters in Dubai and its controlling legal entity in the British Virgin Islands. Furthermore, TEMU is headquartered in Boston. Its parent company, along with several other tech companies, is headquartered in Ireland — including american – enjoy that Ireland’s low corporate tax rates,

Gianforte demanded that no electronic device issued by the state of Montana download any of the above apps until June 1. In December, Congress passed the No TikTok on Government Equipment Act, forcing the removal of TikTok on all federally-issued government equipment.

Too: Can Montana Really Ban TikTok?

Several US lawmakers have been wary of TikTok for years, worrying that the app collects too much US user data and shares data with the Chinese government. But according to US House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, Congress was never informed in this matter,

But surprisingly Gianforte’s attack on foreign apps he thinks are linked to foreign adversaries may be, to some, a similar ban making its way through Congress. embargo act Will severely ban apps linked to any country the US government considers a threat to national security.

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Telegram, Capcat, Lemon8, TikTok, Teemu and WeChat, the targets of Gianforte’s ban, will be inaccessible across the country if the Restrict Act passes through Congress and is cleared from President Biden’s desk.

But until the RESTRICT Act is recognized as legal at the federal level, Gianforte’s efforts to ban foreign apps in the state of Montana will be opposed on the grounds of unconstitutionality and censorship.

What about American social networking sites?

US lawmakers are also concerned that the Chinese government may do the same Manipulating the TikTok algorithm to influence electionsBut a great deal of political trolling also happens on American social sites.

Amnesty International claims Meta didn’t pay attention How Facebook was used in Myanmar to perpetuate coups and genocide, It has been researched and it has been concluded Twitter was a disinformation base for Russian internet trolls In an attempt to influence the 2020 presidential election.

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academic study concluded that apps such as TikTok pose a real threat to national security only if there are users on the app who expose government secrets, such as Air National Guardsman leaking classified documents on Reddit,

It is reasonable that Americans are concerned about how their data could be used on social networking sites owned by foreign companies. But it is important to be careful when using any social networking site, regardless of where the company started. You can take precautions by reading a site’s privacy or data policy, understanding app permissions before accepting them, and downloading copies of your data.

Too: Congress introduces two bills to ban TikTok, here’s what they mean

There aren’t many well-unified laws in the US that protect user privacy online, making trying to ban entire apps because of privacy concerns a sticky situation. So, for now, it is up to the users to decide what kind and how much data they want to float online.