TikTok sues Montana for statewide ban, calls it extraordinary and unprecedented.

TikTok Sues Montana Over Ban, Citing First Amendment and Commerce Clause Violations

The popular social media app, TikTok, has filed a lawsuit against the state of Montana over a recent ban on the platform. The company argues that the new statute violates the First Amendment and the Commerce Clause. Montana officials recently enacted a bill that prohibits app stores from making TikTok available for download in the state. This move comes as federal authorities express concerns that the platform, which is owned by Chinese technology firm ByteDance, may provide members of the Chinese Communist Party access to user data in the United States.

Unfounded Speculation

“The state has enacted these extraordinary and unprecedented measures based on nothing more than unfounded speculation,” said the lawsuit from TikTok, which was filed in federal court.

TikTok’s attorneys argue that the prohibition violates the First Amendment since the law entails “shutting down the forum for speech for all speakers on the app and singling these speakers out for disfavored treatment.” They also assert that the ban breaches the Commerce Clause, which limits the authority of state governments to unduly burden interstate and foreign commerce, and functions as a bill of attainder, an effective declaration of criminal guilt and infliction of punishment by lawmakers prohibited in the Constitution.

Protecting Private Data and Sensitive Personal Information

Montana Republican Governor Greg Gianforte, on the other hand, has said that the law was intended to protect “private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party.”

The bill was sponsored by Montana Republican State Sen. Shelley Vance, who remarked that TikTok is a “major threat to our national security.” Attorneys for TikTok also said that the ban is preempted by federal law since the statute “intrudes upon matters of exclusive federal concern.”

Censorship Practices and National Security Concerns

Lawmakers at the federal level have drawn attention to the censorship practices implemented by TikTok and called for a mandatory divestiture of the platform from ByteDance. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew insisted in his recent testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee that a forced sale of TikTok to an American company would not resolve national security concerns.

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