The ban, effective January 1, will make TikTok illegal in the state. Credit: Reuters
TikTok filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court on Monday to prevent the state of Montana from enforcing a general ban on the video-sharing app.
The unprecedented ban, due to begin in 2024, violates constitutionally protected rights to freedom of speech, TikTok argued in the lawsuit.
"We believe our legal action will prevail based on an extremely compelling set of precedents and facts" A TikTok spokesperson told AFP.
Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed the unprecedented ban legislation on May 17.
Mr. Gianforte tweeted that he supported the ban to «protect the people of Montana.» personal and private data of the Chinese Communist Party."
"The state has taken these extraordinary and unprecedented measures based on nothing more than unfounded assumptions" TikTok filed a lawsuit.
Last week, five TikTok users filed their own lawsuit, urging a federal court to overturn Montana's ban on the app, alleging it violates their free speech rights.
The state is trying to exercise national security powers that only the federal government can have while violating free speech rights, both lawsuits filed against Montana allege.
TikTok has called on a federal court to declare Montana's ban on its app unconstitutional. and block the state from applying it.
«Montana can't ban its residents from viewing or posting on TikTok just as it can't ban the Wall Street Journal because of who owns it or because of the ideas it posts.» alleges in a lawsuit filed by TikTok users.
The app is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance and has been accused by many US politicians of being under the tutelage of the Chinese government and being a spy tool for Beijing. which the company vehemently denies.
Montana has become the first U.S. state to ban TikTok, and the law is set to go into effect next year as debate escalates over the popular video app's impact and safety.
A Question of the Law
The ban will serve as a legal test for a national ban on the platform, which lawmakers in Washington are increasingly calling for.
Montana's ban makes it a violation every time a user accesses TikTok, they are offered the opportunity to access TikTok or be given the opportunity download TikTok."
Each violation is punishable by a fine of $10,000 each day it occurs.
Under the law, Apple and Google will have to remove TikTok from their app stores, and companies will face possible daily fines.
The ban will take effect in 2024, but will be lifted if TikTok is acquired by any company . registered in a country not designated as a foreign adversary by the United States, the law says.
Case should be brought to court quickly because it focuses on issues of law that don't require much According to University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias , it is necessary to collect evidence.
"There are very strong constitutional arguments in favor of the plaintiffs" Mr. Tobias said.
"First, it's free speech, and second, if the ban is justified by national security, it's a matter for the federal government, not an individual state"
This law is the latest skirmish between TikTok and governments in many Western countries: the app is already banned from government devices in the US, Canada and several European countries.
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