TikTok Users Initiate Legal Action to Halt Montana Ban
May 19, 2023
A group of five TikTok creators hailing from Montana has initiated legal proceedings in federal court, aiming to halt the implementation of the state's recent prohibition on the Chinese-owned short-video application.
Gov. Greg Gianforte of Montana signed a bill on Wednesday that will outlaw TikTok beginning on January 1. The five users are attempting to overturn the rule, which forbids TikTok from being offered in the state through Apple Inc., Google, and Alphabet Inc.'s app stores.
On Wednesday, a lawsuit was submitted to the U.S. District Court in Montana, specifically targeting the state's attorney general, Austin Knudsen, who is responsible for the enforcement of the legislation in question.
In their legal complaint, the TikTok users contend that the state of Montana is attempting to assert authority over matters of national security, a jurisdiction that is beyond the state's purview, and is furthermore attempting to curtail speech that should not be suppressed according to Montana's constitutional limitations. The lawsuit asserts that the users firmly believe that the law in question infringes upon their First Amendment rights.
According to the lawsuit, the prohibition of Montana residents from accessing or publishing content on TikTok is comparable to the state attempting to ban the Wall Street Journal based on its ownership or the ideas it disseminates. The lawsuit emphasizes that just as Montana cannot enforce such a ban on a renowned publication, it should not have the authority to restrict access to TikTok based on similar grounds.
Due to worries about possible Chinese government influence over the platform, lawmakers and state officials in the United States have been calling more frequently for a national ban on TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance.
Five plaintiffs, all Montana residents, are listed in the lawsuit. They are a rancher who uses TikTok to share content about her outdoor adventures, a student who is studying applied human physiology and shares content about her outdoor adventures, a designer of sustainable swimwear who uses TikTok to promote her business and interact with customers, and a man who posts humorous videos on the app.
TikTok has consistently refuted any claims of sharing data with the Chinese government and has affirmed that it would refuse such requests if they were made.
The lawsuit has been assigned to Judge Donald Molloy, who was nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton and assumed the position in 1995.
Montana, with a population of slightly over 1 million people, has warned that TikTok may incur fines for each violation of the ban, along with additional daily fines amounting to $10,000 if the ban is violated.
A Commerce Department order issued in 2020 by the former president Donald Trump to prohibit fresh TikTok and WeChat downloads was thwarted in court and never went into effect.
