Five TikTok users in Montana are attempting to block the state’s new ban on the video sharing app.
On Wednesday, Montana governor Greg Gianforte signed legislation that will make it illegal for the App Store and Google Play to offer TikTok within the state from January 1, 2024.
The group of users argue the state seeks to ‘exercise powers over national security that Montana does not have and to ban speech Montana may not suppress’. The suit, lodged in federal court, said users believe the law violates their First Amendment rights.
‘Montana can no more ban its residents from viewing or posting to TikTok than it could ban the Wall Street Journal because of who owns it or the ideas it publishes,’ the lawsuit said.
Emily Flower, a spokeswoman for state attorney general Austin Knudsen who is named in the lawsuit, said the state was ready for legal battles.
‘We expected a legal challenge and are fully prepared to defend the law,’ she said.
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has been banned on government devices in multiple countries – including the UK – due to fears it could be compelled to share data with the ruling Chinese Communist Party. There are growing calls in the US for it to be banned entirely.
According to the lawsuit, the five plaintiffs, all Montana residents, include a designer of sustainable swimwear who uses TikTok to promote her company and engage with customers, a former US Marine Corps sergeant who uses TikTok to connect with other veterans, and 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 and and a man who shares humorous videos on TikTok and earns revenue from the content he posts complete the group.
Following the governor’s signing of the law, Knudsen, a Republican, called TikTok ‘a Chinese Communist Party spying tool that poses a threat to every Montanan’.
TikTok said Montana’s ban ‘infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana by unlawfully banning TikTok’, and said it will ‘continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana’.
Gianforte, also a Republican, said the bill will further ‘our shared priority to protect Montanans from Chinese Communist Party surveillance’.
TikTok has repeatedly denied that it has ever shared data with the Chinese government and has said the company would not do so if asked.
Montana, which has a population of just over 1million people, said TikTok could face fines for each violation and additional fines of $10,000 per day if it violates the ban.
An attempt by former president Donald Trump to ban new downloads of TikTok and WeChat through a Commerce Department order in 2020 was blocked by multiple courts and never took effect.
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