Why a Popular Montana Singer Refused to Go on TikTok

You probably heard the latest news that Montana state government employees are now banned from using the Chinese-owned app TikTok on state-owned devices and for state business.

Several other conservative-led states like Florida and neighboring South Dakota have made similar moves given the Communist Chinese government's ability to spy on and influence Americans using the app.

When I heard this news, it reminded me of a great conversation I had with Tim Montana, the popular musician who hails from Butte, Montana. Despite being named an "insta influencer" by publications like Rolling Stone, Tim Montana said he so far had refused to use TikTok to promote his music.

Here's part of what he told me back in August before his appearance at the Pub Station in Billings, Montana. I was telling Tim Montana how I went to this great show by a guy named Cooper Alan, who got popular after making TikTok videos of his music while sitting on his couch.

Tim Montana: Yeah, I saw yesterday (back in August) Capitol Records signed an AI Artificial Intelligence like animated character that's a rapper to a major recording contract. I'm like, oh, wow now we're signing cartoon characters. Obviously, there's a person behind the music. It's just constantly changing, and the labels have turned to TikTok, and then I keep telling my label-I'm like hey, I've got a nephew in computer security talking about TikTok's kind of, you know, monitored by the Chinese government and they might not be using this for good purposes. I'm like, why are you asking us to push our music out? They're like, well, there's followers there and people that engage. And it's kind of that iffy thing- it's like, at what cost do you go pursue something like that if you're, you know, potentially risking security stuff.

Click here for our full conversation from back in August.