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TikTok Users Sue Montana, Calling State Ban Unconstitutional
A spokeswoman for the state attorney general said that his office had “expected a legal challenge” and was “fully prepared to defend the law.”
Sapna Maheshwari and
A court battle over First Amendment rights kicked off in Montana on Thursday after a group of TikTok users challenged the state’s new TikTok ban, which is set to take effect Jan. 1 and is the first of its kind in the nation.
The TikTok users said in a lawsuit that the law violated their First Amendment rights and claimed that the ban, which Gov. Greg Gianforte signed on Wednesday, far outstripped Montana’s legal authority as a state. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court but was added to a public court records system on Thursday.
The ban has also set off an outcry from TikTok and civil liberty and digital rights groups. Montana lawmakers and Mr. Gianforte, a Republican, say the ban is necessary to prevent Americans’ personal information from falling into the hands of the Chinese government. TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.
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 itself or leading civil liberty groups. Brooke Oberwetter, a spokeswoman for TikTok, declined to comment on the likelihood of the company’s 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.
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