TikTok sues Montana
A Western US government is being sued by a subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate ByteDance for passing a law aimed at banning TikTok from next year.
The Montana Legislature passed a resolution in mid-April that ordered mobile application stores (Apple and Google) to stop distributing TikTok as of January 1, 2024.
AFP
TikTok, a subsidiary of Chinese group Bite Dance, filed a complaint on Monday against the US state of Montana, which passed a law last week to ban the application next year. The ban “violates the United States Constitution in several ways,” asserts the agency, particularly the First Amendment, which guarantees “freedom of expression,” argues the document consulted by AFP.
Many US lawmakers believe the short, entertaining video site, frequented by 150 million Americans, allows Beijing to spy on and manipulate users. The platform has always denied these allegations. But the Montana legislature passed a text in mid-April that ordered mobile application stores (Apple and Google) to stop distributing TikTok starting January 1, 2024, while Congress and the White House are considering similar plans.
According to TikTok, there is no legal authority
“TikTok exercises its editorial discretion, a constitutionally protected right, to distribute and promote content created by third parties,” the company’s lawyers say. They also argue that the U.S. government lacks the legal authority to ban use based on national security, a federal matter.
Complaint also refers to the principle of fairness. “Instead of regulating social networks in general, the law bans TikTok, and for punitive reasons based on speculative concerns about data protection and content control (…) only TikTok”, the lawyers argue. Montana elected officials also accuse TikTok of harming young people’s health (addiction, depression). Some Democratic representatives have responded that other social networks, such as Instagram, deserve to be regulated in all these respects.
The ACLU, a powerful civil rights group, has accused the government of censorship. “With this ban, Governor Gianforte and the Montana Legislature are trampling on the free speech of hundreds of thousands of Montana residents who use this app to express themselves, find information and promote their small businesses on behalf of anti-Chinese sentiment,” Keegan said. Medrano, an official with the local branch of the ACLU, said in a statement Wednesday.
Shortly after the governor of this northwestern US state, Greg Gianforte, signed the law, five TikTok users appealed the decision to a federal court in Montana.
AFP
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