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Sen. Shelley Vance’s bill banning TikTok in Montana is anti-business, and it will potentially shut down thousands of small companies like mine. My business, White Bear Moccasins, is thriving because of TikTok. When the pandemic hit, the platform not only kept me connected with my customers, but it was also how I was able to grow my brand.
Small businesses across the country make their livelihoods from TikTok in a way that energizes communities and puts money into local economies. Senate Bill 419 will create an unsettling precedent and will show that Montana does not support entrepreneurs in its own state.
It will deprive thousands of growing small businesses currently active on TikTok in Montana of a free tool that helps the companies succeed and ultimately delivers meaningful economic impact to the state.
White Bear Moccasins, for example, sees a significant percentage of its business generated on TikTok. Not only has it been great for my company, but it is an amazing tool to help communities grow. Indigenous makers like me thrive on it.
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This platform has opened up wonderful opportunities for other makers as well as me. People who may not have gotten the same traction on Instagram flourish on TikTok. It has a much larger reach. Someone with 5,000 followers on Instagram may have 100,000 on TikTok.
Vance’s argument that public safety is at risk because people will attempt the viral challenges presented on the platform is flawed. The bill points to challenges such as “attempting to climb stacks of milkcrates,” and “cooking chicken in NyQuil.”
These challenges are promoted across platforms such as Facebook and Instagram as well. Why should the financial well-being of small businesses be tied to whether someone decides to do something unsafe? These are individual, personal decisions. Shutting down TikTok and putting its makers’ livelihoods at risk is not going to stop people from making bad choices.
Look too, at what TikTok has done to connect Montana to the rest of the world. When we had the flooding of the Yellowstone River in the Gardiner area, the rest of the country was by our side. They knew what was going on because people were right there, streaming live videos and posting TikToks, and getting the information out in real time.
Rather than “protect” people, Vance’s bill is going to isolate Montanans from the rest of the country. The bill will prevent us from sharing the beauty of our state. It will prevent other women and Indigenous people who have started businesses on the platform from reaching 100 million TikTok users across the country.
The bill is putting our personal choices and liberties at risk. The government should not be telling its citizens where they can or cannot get their information in this “land of the free.”
Vance is trying to control the people of this state with Senate Bill 419. It is an infringement on our rights, on our freedom of speech. Doesn’t China itself try to control people’s social media? We’re supposed to be better than that in the United States.
Vance and the rest of the legislators across Montana should be busy passing laws to help promote commerce in the state instead of passing ones that interfere with our personal freedoms. Senate Bill 419 is just bad for business.
Shauna White Bear owns White Bear Moccasins, based in Bozeman.
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