TikTok Sues Montana's "Unfair" App Ban Decision

Concerned over the possibility of being banned from early next year onwards in Montana due to legislative intervention; video-sharing giant- “TikTok” has filed a lawsuit against legislation that is perceived as unconstitutional in nature along with impinging upon other established tenuous federal and constitutional claims. The app has also refuted allegations of unscrupulous data tracking by the Chinese, calling this assertion as “unfounded”.

Image by 13smok from Pixabay

Lawmakers passed a bill in Montana that imposes a fine of $10,000 per day on TikTok and app stores offering the app on personal devices commencing January 1st, 2024.

Brooke Oberwetter, a spokesperson for TikTok remarked – "We are challenging Montana's unconstitutional TikTok ban to protect our business and the hundreds of thousands of TikTok users in Montana." The company believes it will win based on legal precedents and concrete facts.

Emily Flower, Montana’s Attorney General’s representative expressed their preparedness to defend this action stating that - "We expected legal challenges and are fully prepared to defend the law that helps protect Montanans' privacy and security." China criticized this move by Montana citing it as an “abuse of state power” with no concrete evidence backing up the repercussions that could result from people using ‘Tik Tok’.

These events unfolded due to mounting criticism towards Tik Tok due to its parent company ByteDance being linked with China. No conclusive evidence has emerged concerning data access by China's government despite several US lawmakers advocating for a ban on these grounds.

However, enforcing such laws presents technical issues as several users communicate through social media platforms consistently; while "Tik Tok" boasts hundreds of thousands of users in Montana alone.

The state of Montana has implemented a ban on TikTok, one of the foremost platforms for protected free speech under the First Amendment. However, TikTok asserts that this decision is unwarranted due to mere speculative concerns about foreign government access to user data and content.

To counteract this issue, TikTok is pursuing litigation for an injunction against the enforcement of this ban in Montana on permanent grounds. Accordingly, such legal measures explicitly demonstrate how lawmakers face barriers while attempting to confine platforms within the US jurisdiction as accomplished by Montana's authorities here.

Additionally, some creators from Tiktok have initiated another lawsuit against Montana lamenting that such restrictions infringe upon their rights under the First Amendment.

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