HELENA, Mont. — Montana’s first law in the nation to ban the video-sharing app TikTok in the state was blocked by a federal judge on Thursday, calling it unconstitutional, one month before it went into effect.
The ruling was a temporary victory for social media companies, which have argued that Montana’s Republican-controlled Legislature went “completely overreach” in trying to regulate the apps. A final decision will be made at a later date, after the legal challenges pass through the courts.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy singled out the state for its obsession with alleged Chinese influence, saying the ban “oversteps state authority and undermines the constitutional rights of users and businesses.” It is infringing.”
“Despite the state’s efforts to defend (the law) as a consumer protection bill, the current record shows that the Montana Legislature and Attorney General’s office is less focused on protecting Montana consumers than on TikTok. There is little doubt that China was interested in targeting China’s ostensible role,” Molloy wrote on Thursday. The preliminary injunction is granted. “This is especially evident since the same Congress enacted a completely separate law aimed at broadly protecting consumers’ digital data and privacy.”
In May, Montana lawmakers made the state the first in the U.S. to ban the app entirely, citing claims that the Chinese government could access user information from its parent company Beijing ByteDance. was approved.
The ban, which was scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, was first introduced in the Montana Legislature weeks after a Chinese reconnaissance balloon flew over the state.
The state bans downloads of TikTok and fines app stores and “entities” such as TikTok $10,000 per day for every time someone is “provided with the ability” to access or download the app. will be imposed. There are no penalties for users.
TikTok spokesperson Jamal Brown said in a statement that “a judge struck down this unconstitutional law, allowing hundreds of thousands of Montanans to express themselves, earn a living, and support their communities on TikTok.” “I can keep finding things,” he said.
A spokesperson for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, also a Republican, sought to downplay the significance of the ruling in a statement.
“The judge indicated multiple times that his analysis could change as the case progresses,” said Emily Cantrell, a spokeswoman for Knudsen. “We look forward to presenting a full legal argument to defend legislation that protects Montanans from data acquisition and use by the Chinese Communist Party.”
Western governments have expressed concern that popular social media platforms could put sensitive data into the hands of the Chinese government or be used as tools to spread misinformation. Chinese law allows the government to order companies to cooperate in gathering information.
More than half of U.S. states and the federal government have banned TikTok on official devices. The company called the ban “political theater” and said its efforts to protect U.S. data by storing it on Oracle servers do not require further restrictions. The company said it has not received any requests for U.S. user data from the Chinese government and would not provide it even if requested.
“The extent to which China controls TikTok and has access to its users’ data is at the heart of this dispute,” the judge said.
Lawyers for TikTok and its content creators said on October 12 that attempts by nations to regulate TikTok would go too far over unproven concerns that TikTok could share user data with the Chinese government. , claimed that it was essentially trying to conduct its own foreign policy.
TikTok said in a court filing that Montana could have limited the type of data TikTok could collect from its users, rather than enacting an outright ban. Content creators, meanwhile, said the ban violates their right to free speech and could cause financial harm to their businesses.
The state’s attorney general, Christian Corrigan, argued that Montana’s law is not a foreign policy statement, but instead addresses “serious and widespread concerns about data privacy.”
The state has not presented any evidence of TikTok’s “alleged harmful data practices,” Molloy wrote.
Molloy said at the hearing that TikTok users consent to the company’s data collection policies, and that Knudsen of the bill’s drafting office may air a public service announcement warning people about the data TikTok collects. he pointed out.
The American Civil Liberties Union, its Montana chapter, and the electronic frontier foundation, a digital privacy advocacy group, filed a court brief in support of the challenge. Meanwhile, 18 attorneys general from mostly Republican-led states have sided with Montana, asking judges to allow the law to go into effect. Even if it were to happen, cybersecurity experts say it could be difficult to enforce.