Though Montana Governor Greg Gianforte may have signed a bill outlawing TikTok in the Treasure State on Wednesday, May 17 his disdain of the cursed clock app may not run in the family.


Earlier this week, one of our chronically online eBaum’s World editors stumbled across a not-so-shocking discovery, one that may make family gatherings a bit more awkward for Montana’s first family: A TikTok page appearing to belong to the lawmaker’s adult son, Adam Gianforte.



Boasting a whopping 0 followers and 0 likes (stats Gov. Gianforte can likely relate to following his controversial signing of Senate Bill 419), the private page is, well, just that. An empty bio. A generic smiling profile photo. A very basic username – @adamgianforte.


Alongside the identity of the page’s actual owner, its usage and age are both unknown. It is also unclear whether Adam still resides in Montana, though according to a LinkedIn page boasting a similar username and photo as the TikTok account, it appears he’s resided in Chicago for several years, thereby making him unaffected by the impending ban, which is set to go into effect on January 1, 2024.




Yet, even with this laundry list of caveats, merely possessing a TikTok account would counter several of the lawmaker’s pointed remarks about the app’s privacy policies.


"Today, Montana takes the most decisive action of any state to protect Montanans' private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party," Gov. Gianforte said of the measure, per NPR.


As the outlet noted, “there is no direct evidence” that the Chinese government has seen or employed user data from the roughly 150 million Americans who use the platform.


It’s easy to feel hypocrisy fatigue, and while many Montanas are voicing their anger with their governor, one sentiment rings loudest, “Shouldn’t this be OUR [Montanas] choice?!"