In all likelihood, Montana’s TikTok ban won’t stand up through the courts, which will lead to an even more confounding situation regarding TikTok’s very existence within the country.
While we wait for the social media companies to become fully transparent and show us that they’re taking all their users' privacy and security seriously, it’s up to the brands and marketers to be the change makers. Soon data privacy will be the issue for brands, just like sustainability and diversity.
The Montana TikTok ban is now facing a lawsuit from parent company ByteDance, on the basis of violation of Constitutional rights and assorted federal laws. The ban is not slated to take effect until January 2024, and legal challenges were expected in the interim.
Montana's TikTok ban is the first of its kind to become law if it survives the inevitable legal challenges. A group of content creators is already challenging the ban in court, claiming First Amendment violations and overreach by the state in invoking national security powers.
While many CISOs are considering a TikTok ban on corporate devices, implementation can be challenging for any organization especially to those with a BYOD policy. Unified endpoint management (UEM) can play a crucial role in meeting this challenge.
The Australia TikTok ban follows the same concerns that have prompted actions by its allies; fears that sensitive personal or classified information will find its way from government devices to ByteDance servers in China.
The UK has followed the US in enacting a TikTok ban that applies to government devices, citing national security concerns. The ban is part of a broader review of potential social media app threats.
The former TikTok employee worked as a risk manager in the company's Safety Operations division for six months and claims that a "complete re-engineering" of the app is the only way to secure user data.
TikTok is no longer welcome on the devices of federal agencies, along with many state governments. But some in Congress are calling for an even broader TikTok ban, to the point of removing it from the country entirely.
The White House has ordered federal agencies to remove TikTok from government devices within 30 days. The TikTok ban includes any app made by parent company Bytedance, and extends to government contractors to be implemented over a longer period of time.
