TikTok filed suit Monday against Montana, prompted by the state’s ban on the social-media platform, which would prevent TikTok from operating within its jurisdiction entirely.
The company, a subsidiary of the China-based company ByteDance, has been intensely scrutinized by state and federal lawmakers concerned with national security. In its new law, Montana builds upon a December 2022 ban of TikTok from state equipment. The social-media company has sued on multiple grounds, saying, “Montana’s ban abridges freedom of speech in violation of the First Amendment, violates the U.S. Constitution in multiple other respects, and is preempted by federal law.”
Senate Bill 419 will become effective on January 1, 2024, and provides for fines in the amount of $10,000 for each discrete violation and an additional $10,000 each day the violation continues. TikTok itself and mobile-app stores, like those operated by Apple and Google, could be subject to these fines if the app’s availability is not curtailed.
Montana governor Greg Gianforte (R.) argued banning the platform was crucial to protect the privacy of Montanans. “The Chinese Communist Party using TikTok to spy on Americans, violate their privacy, and collect their personal, private, and sensitive information is well-documented,” wrote Gianforte in a statement.
TikTok rejected this characterization in the filing, saying it does not and “would not share U.S. user data with the Chinese government.”
Appearing before Congress in March, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew announced Project Texas, a plan to wall off U.S. operations, with U.S. company Oracle able to access TikTok’s algorithms to flag issues for government inspectors. However, lawmakers across the aisle were skeptical of this proposal, and an employment lawsuit filed by an ex-ByteDance executive claims that Chinese Communist Party control is even more extensive than previously thought.
According to Yintao Yu, ByteDance’s Beijing office had a unit of Communist Party members known as “the Committee” that “guided how the company advanced core Communist values.”
“The Committee maintained supreme access to all the company data, even data stored in the United States,” read Yu’s complaint.
In addition to violating the First Amendment, TikTok alleges the Montana ban intrudes upon matters of exclusive federal concern and also interferes with TikTok’s operation and availability in other states. Finally, the company claims Montana’s ban is an unconstitutional bill of attainder because TikTok is targeted specifically.
Emily Flower, a spokeswoman for Montana attorney general Austin Knudsen, said: “We expected a legal challenge and are fully prepared to defend the law.”
A group of TikTok users also sued Montana last week, saying the ban violates their First Amendment rights.