On a recent summer day, Austin Knudsen, Montana’s attorney general, drove his red Buick from Helena, the state’s capital, to Boulder, a tiny town about a half-hour away whose main claim to fame is that it’s home to the state’s highway border patrol. The road was quiet, flanked by the sort of sprawling pastures and expansive landscapes that give Montana its nickname of Big Sky Country. When Mr. Knudsen visits the highway patrol, which is under his purview, he swears by the steak and burgers at the Windsor, a local haunt that grills its meats behind the bar and where patrons can be spotted drinking beer straight from a pitcher. In May, the state passed a law to ban TikTok that was drafted by Mr. Knudsen’s office. Federal lawmakers, just like Mr. Knudsen, have been concerned that TikTok could expose private user data to Beijing because the app is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company.

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Persons: Austin Knudsen, Knudsen, Chris LeDoux Organizations: Big Sky, Washington , D.C, Federal, ByteDance Locations: Helena, Boulder, Montana, Windsor, United States, Washington ,, Beijing