Can Michigan Ignore Possible Federal TikTok Ban?

The beautiful thing about the United States of America is, while we do have to adhere to certain federal laws, and national guidelines, our individual states also still have their own prerogative to make their own laws and rules within certain guidelines.

Case and point, marijuana is still federally banned, but more than half of states have legalized it in some form at this point. So, with the latest potential TikTok ban looming under federal law, is it possible that Michigan could ignore this band, and allow its state citizens to keep the app?

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The Federal Government's Latest TikTok Bill

As I'm sure we've all seen on the news, or in the headlines, the United States House of Representatives have now passed a bill that could potentially remove TikTok from app stores in America. The bill specifically targets ByteDance, the parent company of the app, which is based in China.

Essentially, Congress is asking ByteDance to sell their portion of TikTok to an American buyer in this bill. They claim their data collection violates the security of American citizens, and continue to push the idea that this will keep our data more secure, despite American's data continually being sold from other American-owned platforms like Meta.

What's even crazier about this bill is, the House of Representatives signed it only eight days after it was written, and with more than 80% approval, in one of the most unproductive Congresses in American history. Both Republicans, and Democrats alike, including Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin, voted in favor of the bill.

"No one wants to ban TikTok; we just don't want the Chinese Communist Party to have access to millions and millions of individual data sets from our citizens."

Republican Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan also backed the bill.

"This strong bipartisan legislation is an important step forward in making sure social media apps owned by foreign adversaries are prohibited form doing business in America."

Of course, all politicians say they don't WANT to ban TikTok, and this bill is NOT a direct ban on the popular app. But by signing this bill, its essentially a death sentence, since ByteDance has effectively said, they have no intentions of selling.

The bill now goes to the Senate, who will look it over, and make their decision soon enough, and should it pass, it will go to the President, who will sign it into law. At that point, ByteDance will have six months to sell, or the app will be banned.

READ MORE: TikTok Ban - How Your Local Congress Members Voted

Should that happen, it would disappear for 170 million users in the country, and suddenly cut off much-needed revenue to thousands of Americans, who use the app as a means of either a second source of income, or their entire income.

By banning TikTok, the U.S. Government would effectively kill 300,000 direct American jobs, and additional revenue for thousands more.

Can Michigan Ignore a Federal Ban on TikTok?

It's an interesting conversation, since technically marijuana is federally illegal, but Michigan, among most other states in the Union, still sell it legally under state provisions. To clarify, it all comes down to the Tenth Amendment, which enshrines the rights reserved to the States and the People.

"The Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

In other words, because the Federal marijuana laws aren't an amendment, the States can still make their own provisions. Michigan could technically pass its own provisions that keeps TikTok legal in the state. It's the same way some states allow sports betting on apps, and others don't. You can download the app, but once you cross state lines, you can no longer participate.

So it's possible for Michigan to try and pass their own pro-TikTok laws that would keep the app functional within its borders. But, they might run into a wall called the Federal Court. Last year, Montana tried to put their own ban on TikTok in place, but a federal judge blocked that order. BUT, at the time, no federal ban existed.

If the federal government has their own laws in place to ban the app, then federal judges would likely lean more in favor of the federal law, rather than the state. BUT... that's my own hot take.

The bottom line is, if TikTok is banned, it likely means it will be removed from app stores, and wouldn't even be available anymore.

Thankfully, there is still some time, and a few more steps to take before the ban could go into place. The Senate still has to pass the bill, and the President still has to sign it. But this first step is a scary one for lovers of the app.