In Montana, a TikTok Ban Could Be a ‘Kick in the Face’
Christian Poole, 20, has deemed himself “the unofficial ambassador for the state of Montana.”
On TikTok, his favorite social media platform, he posts lighthearted videos about the peculiarities of his home state. His nearly 420,000 followers reward him with hearts and laughing-face emojis.
But when Gov. Greg Gianforte of Montana signed a bill on Wednesday making his state the first in the nation to ban the site, Mr. Poole, along with hundreds of thousands of users, was left trying to make sense of the unlikely collision between TikTok’s mostly young users and international geopolitics.
Recent videos posted by Mr. Poole, of Bozeman, cover topics like cows, which outnumber people in Montana, and spring showers, which often bring frozen pellets called graupel, not rain. He says he posts for fun, not money, and his objective on the app is simple: “I want to make people laugh.”
Mr. Poole expected the ban to face numerous legal challenges, he said, so he was “not losing sleep” over it.
Source: The New York Times
