TikTok sued Monday to prevent Montana from banning the popular video app, stepping up its efforts to stop a ban that would be the first of its kind in the country.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, the company said Montana’s legislation violated the First Amendment and parts of the U.S. Constitution that limit state powers. The ban was “unconstitutionally closing the forum to speech for all speakers on the app,” the company said in the lawsuit.
TikTok sued days after Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed the ban — which would fine the video app if it worked in the state or app stores if they allowed it to be downloaded — in law. The state law has become a test case for whether it is possible to ban the use of TikTok, which is owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance, due to national security concerns. The ban, which takes effect Jan. 1, has already raised questions about how it would be enforced within Montana’s borders.
“We are challenging Montana’s unconstitutional TikTok ban to protect our company and the hundreds of thousands of TikTok users in Montana,” Brooke Oberwetter, a TikTok spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We believe our legal challenge will prevail based on an extraordinarily strong set of precedents and facts.”
The lawsuit adds to the legal challenges of the ban. A group of TikTok users filed a separate lawsuit against Montana’s bill on Wednesday, the day Gianforte signed it into law, saying it violated their First Amendment rights and exceeded state legal authority. The law has also sparked protests from civil liberties and digital rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute.
A spokeswoman for the Montana attorney general did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
TikTok, which has more than 150 million US users, was in limbo under two presidential administrations as it worked to allay concerns about its Chinese ownership. The company, which has been waiting for the Biden administration to approve its plan to operate in the United States, has already faced bans on government devices in more than two dozen states, as well as by universities and the military.
The ban in Montana was drafted by the state’s Attorney General, Austin Knudsen, a Republican, and introduced this year by a Republican senator. Lawmakers in the state said the ban would prevent the Chinese government from accessing Montanans’ personal information. Debate over the ban began not long after a Chinese spy balloon floated over the state, drawing national attention.
The new law prohibits TikTok from using the app in the state. App store operators, such as Apple and Google, are also prohibited from making it available for download in the state. TikTok, Apple and Google risk daily fines of $10,000 if they don’t follow the rules.
In 2020, TikTok sued the federal government when President Donald J. Trump used his economic emergency powers to issue an executive order preventing the app from working in the United States. A judge sided with the company — and another judge blocked the ban after a challenge from a group of creators — and the app sidestepped the ban.
TikTok has been banned in some countries, including India in 2020. Britain, Canada, and France recently banned the app on official government devices.
