In response to the U.S. state of Montana banning TikTok from operating there as of January 1, 2024, the first U.S. state to do so, it’s expected that TikTok users and/or civil liberty groups will attempt to fight the ban in court.
U.S. state Montana on Wednesday banned the CCP-controlled TikTok app, with the state’s lawmakers saying they aimed to protect residents from alleged intelligence gathering by the Chinese Communist Party.
Sapna Maheshwari and David McCabe for The New York Times:
A court battle over First Amendment rights appeared to be brewing in Montana on Thursday, in response to the state banning TikTok from operating there as of Jan. 1, the first prohibition of its kind in the nation.
Under the law, TikTok will be fined for operating the app within the state, and app store providers like Google and Apple will be fined if TikTok is available for download in Montana.
No plans for a lawsuit were announced on Thursday by TikTok or leading civil liberty groups. Brooke Oberwetter, a spokeswoman for TikTok, declined to comment on the likelihood of the company filing a suit.
But Ms. Oberwetter said on Wednesday, after the law was signed, that the ban infringed on the First Amendment rights of people in Montana and that the company would keep “working to defend the rights of our users.” She said on Thursday that a federal ban in 2020 did not hold up to legal scrutiny and that Montana did not have a workable plan for enacting the ban…
NetChoice, a trade group that counts TikTok as a member and has sued in the past to block state laws targeting tech companies, also said in a statement that the ban violated the Constitution. Krista Chavez, a spokeswoman for the group, said NetChoice did not “currently have plans to sue” to challenge the law.
MacDailyNews Take: May or may not. Again, Montana’s law could trigger a domino effect in other U.S. states.
See also: U.S. President Trump issues executive orders banning TikTok and WeChat – August 7, 2020
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