Montana continues to face challenges as the first state to officially approve of a statewide ban for the short-form video app. In addition to the lawsuit filed by TikTok content creators, TikTok itself decided to sue the state as well.
Montana Has a Long Way to Go
The state still has more than seven months to go before the ban is implemented, and it's not looking easy for Montana that it has already faced lawsuits from both creators and the app itself within the week of announcing it.
Now, it will be facing a bigger problem as TikTok's lawsuit alleges the state of violating the app users' freedom of speech and expression, as well as singling TikTok out, as mentioned in Gizmodo, despite the claims of generally protecting the state's private user data.
The company's spokesperson, Brooke Oberwetter said in a statement that they were challenging the state's "unconstitutional TikTok ban to protect our business and the hundreds of thousands of TikTok users in Montana."
TikTok may have actual grounds when it comes to defending users, especially in terms of income. A lot of content creators make a living by creating content on TikTok, and if anything would get in the way of that, it would be a statewide ban.
Spokesperson Oberwetter expressed that they believe their legal challenge will prevail based on "an exceedingly strong set of precedents and facts." Although that remains to be seen, there's also the accusation of an illegal bill of attainder.
To clarify, it refers to a law that criminalizes an individual without going through a trial. Since TikTok believes that they are being singled out, it could contradict Montana's claims to be looking out for data security in general.
The Legal Matters
TikTok lawsuit states, just as it did with the TikTok content creators, that the statewide ban of the app violates the First Amendment rights of its users, as it prevents them from practicing the freedom of speech and expression.
The short-form video company also pointed out that the speculations about the potential foreign government access to user data and content of speech are unfounded, as well a "flatly inconsistent with the constitution.
Spokesperson for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, Emily Flower said that they were already expecting TikTok to take legal action to challenge the ban and that they were fully prepared to defend the law.
As for singling out the app, TikTok is not the only app affected by Montana's purging of them when they pose a risk to the data security of its users. Telegram, WeChat, and Temu have also been banned from government devices in the state.
What most of the apps have in common is that all but Telegram are owned by China-based companies, as mentioned in The Verge, so it may not work for TikTok when they aim to reverse the ban on those grounds.
It's expected that TikTok will take legal action against Montana, and it's not only to fight for the freedom of speech or to protect its income. It also sets a precedent for more statewide TikTok bans that may come, as well as the planned nationwide ban in the US.
