TikTok is suing Montana’s attorney-general in an effort to stop the US state from banning it over national security concerns, arguing the move is both “unlawful” and “unconstitutional”.
The social media app, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, on Monday filed the lawsuit in federal court just days after Montana’s governor signed into law a first-of-its-kind bill that would from January prohibit app stores from allowing downloads of the TikTok in the state. It would also ban the app from operating there.
The proposed bans comes as governments and regulators globally have raised fears that TikTok’s China ties could allow the app to harvest data on its 150mn American users to be wielded for spying purposes.
In the lawsuit, TikTok argues that the legislation violates its first amendment rights to free speech, and that the alleged national security concerns used to justify the ban were matters of “exclusive federal concern”. The company also argued that the ban was in violation of US rules around foreign and interstate commerce, and was in effect an unconstitutional “bill of attainder” — a piece of legislation that declares a group guilty of a crime without a trial.
“We are challenging Montana’s unconstitutional TikTok ban to protect our business and the hundreds of thousands of TikTok users in Montana,” a TikTok spokesperson said. “We believe our legal challenge will prevail based on an exceedingly strong set of precedents and facts.”
