Item — HN Reader

>its kinda the idea behind states.

The idea behind states is that the country is made up of a union of independent states with a federal government which serves to mediate between the states and make sure they do not overstep on things like basics rights and deal with the international issues. Technically this is absolutely in the power of a state, practically speaking they might as well try and ban air from ND from crossing their boarder.

But Montana is perfectly aware that they can not actually ban TikTok or any other app on their own.

1 comments

States tried walling off each others' economies in the 1780s, and it didn't work. It may be in their power... but even if the TikTok ban itself is a good idea, its not a good idea for a state to do it.

This has nothing to do with the economy and even if Montana somehow managed to block any and all access to TikTok within their borders the only effect it would have on any economies is a tiny drop in their own revenue from taxes and an even smaller drop on tax revenue at the federal level.

What this does is force the issue at the federal level. If Montana (or any state) were to ban TikTok (or any app) all they can really do to enforce that ban is to prohibit the sales of phones with the app within their borders and prohibit local ISPs from allowing access to TikTok, which is fruitless in the days of mail order, satellite internet, VPNs, and so on. So now Montana can go to the Federal government about other states making it impossible for them to enforce their own laws.

There are a few reasons they could be doing this, could simply be the standard election season politics and earning points with the locals with legislation that does not have a leg to stand on. It could just be to get it out of the way so they can say Fed has ruled, nothing we can do. Or it could be to force some other related legislation, and probably quite a few other possibilities. You need to dig into Montana politics if you want to figure out their reason.