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Montana is closing in on becoming the first state in the nation to ban the social media platform TikTok. The House of Representatives passed a bill 54-43 last week that would penalize app stores for providing anyone within Montana's borders access to TikTok. The Senate passed the bill on a 30-to-20 vote last month.

The bill would carry fines of $10,000 per person able to access the app, compounded daily. The bill would not fine Montanans who access the app, just the app store they used to download it.

Sen. Shelley Vance, R-Belgrade, is the sponsor of Senate Bill 419, but Republican Rep. Brandon Ler, R-Savage, carried it in the House. He said during a debate Thursday that TikTok is not only collecting users' data and sending it back to its parent company ByteDance, which has ties to the Chinese Communist Party, but also exposing Montana's children to dangerous online trends.

"China is after our data and intellectual property. We saw another example recently with the Chinese spy balloons that hovered right over our state. This bill will not only protect Montana's rights to privacies and its users and other users alike, but also their health, safety, and especially our young people," Ler said.

Proponents of the bill said it would protect kids from dangerous content and protect Montanans' data. Some proponents even said the bill didn't go far enough and said more social media platforms affiliated with foreign enemies should be banned in Montana.

Opponents of the bill said data privacy is a serious issue in Montana, but banning TikTok wouldn't do much to protect Montanans in the long-run because other apps are mining data and could turn around and sell it anyway. And, they said internet trends don't just spread on TikTok, they are everywhere else as well.

Opponents also argued that TikTok is not just an app for kids, and that Montanans use the app to advertise their businesses and share their work.

"These are entrepreneurs in Montana who are being creative, who are industrious, who are tenacious, who are thinking about how they can reach outside of Montana or across the state," Rep. Alice Buckley, D-Bozeman, said. "They're oftentimes makers, they're ranchers, they're folks who are reaching out with their Montana made product to other people across the country, and are using it as a tool, not only a business tool, but a storytelling tool as well."

The bill is scheduled now to head to the governor's desk for his signature or veto.

Elinor Smith is a reporter with the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Broadcasters Association, the Montana Newspaper Association and the Greater Montana Foundation.