Montana isn’t waiting for the Biden administration to fix a possible weak link in our national security. On Friday, the state became the first one in the U.S. to completely ban the use of Chinese government-connected social media platform TikTok.

Via the Associated Press:

Montana lawmakers gave final passage Friday to a bill banning the social media app TikTok from operating in the state, a move that’s bound to face legal challenges but also serve as a testing ground for the TikTok-free America many national lawmakers have envisioned.

The measure now goes to Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte for his consideration.

The state House voted 54-43 to pass the bill, which goes further than prohibitions in place in nearly half the states and the US federal government that prohibit TikTok on government devices. Montana already bans the app on state-owned devices.

State representatives and national political figures across the country have urged action to ban the app entirely in the country in the name of national security interests, including an FCC commissioner in December 2022.

TikTok was quick to react to the bill’s passage, with spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter saying in a statement:

We will continue to fight for TikTok users and creators in Montana whose livelihoods and First Amendment rights are threatened by this egregious government overreach.

It’s worth noting that in February, the airspace over Montana was breached by an unidentified flying object, a week after a Chinese spy balloon hovered over the same area, prompting the FAA to close the airspace temporarily.

As my colleague Ben Kew wrote in March about TikTok CEO Shou Chew’s testimony, the executive was anything but forthcoming about the company’s obeisance to China. He refused to answer a senator’s questions about the Chinese Communist Party and the egregious treatment of members of the Uyghurs, a cultural and religious minority group, in the Middle Kingdom:

Chew declined three consecutive opportunities to acknowledge the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of its Uyghur population during his House Commerce Committee hearing, insisting he would only speak about his own company’s activities.

“Do you agree that the Chinese government has persecuted the Uyghur population?” asked Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (R-AZ).

“Congresswoman, if you use our app and you open it, you will find our users, who give all sorts of content on–,” he responded, before Lesko cut him off and reminded him that that was not her original question.

“Well, it’s deeply concerning to hear about all accounts of human rights abuse, my role here is to explain what our platform does-”, Chew replied, before being cut off by Lesko once again.

While Montana may be the first state to ban TikTok, it likely won’t be the last. Americans who understand the privacy and security risks involved in sharing information through the systems of a company like Chinese tech company ByteDance (which owns TikTok) will continue to raise their voices on the issue with their elected representatives. With luck, that will spur national action like our mini-laboratories of governance in the states are already doing—and sooner rather than later.