TikTok sues Montana to prevent ban
The state signed a bill banning the social media platform last week.
Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
TikTok has sued the state of Montana in federal court to overturn its new law banning the social media app within the Treasure State, NPR reports. The bill, TikTok alleges in its filing, is censorious and represents a suppression of free speech that “unlawfully abridges one of the core freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.” TikTok owner ByteDance says that over 150 million Americans use the app.
“We are challenging Montana’s unconstitutional TikTok ban to protect our business and the hundreds of thousands of TikTok users in Montana,” TikTok said in a statement. “We believe our legal challenge will prevail based on an exceedingly strong set of precedents and facts.”
The Montana state government believes that TikTok’s connection to ByteDance, a Chinese-owned company, is a security concern for the state’s citizens. TikTok pushed back on this categorization: “The state has enacted these extraordinary and unprecedented measures based on nothing more than unfounded speculation.”
Montana’s TikTok ban was signed into law by Governor Greg Gianforte last week and is due to take effect on January 1, 2024. If it survives its challenges, companies that host the app stores that sell TikTok would face fines of $10,000 a day.