TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has been locked in a legal battle with Montana since the state passed the ban in April.
Montana is at the forefront of a wave of new tech laws passed by Republican-led states. Some give parents control over their children’s social media accounts.
The lawsuit by TikTok, owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, follows one filed last week by five content creators that looks to overturn Montana’s ban on the video sharing app. They made similar arguments including that the state of Montana has no authority to take action on matters of national security. Both lawsuits were filed in federal court in Missoula.
The new rules in Montana will have more far-reaching effects than TikTok bans already in place on government-issued devices in nearly half the states and the U.S. federal government. There are 200,000 TikTok users in Montana as well as 6,000 businesses that use the video-sharing platform, according to company spokesperson Jamal Brown. Pictured: Montana Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signs a law banning TikTok in the state. That law made Montana became the first state in the U.S. to completely ban TikTok.
Montana lawmakers on Thursday advanced a bill that aims to ban the use of TikTok in the state, due to concerns about national security, privacy and the app’s content. Senate Bill 419m, which would take effect in January, prohibits TikTok from operating in Montana, and prohibits internet service providers and app stores from offering TikTok to users in Montana.
Montana’s Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock on Monday signed an executive order requiring all internet service providers with state contracts to commit to net neutrality, the principle that all traffic on the internet should be treated equally. That makes Montana the first state to successfully push back against last month’s ruling of the Republican-led FCC, which essentially dismantled the rules adopted under the Obama administration in 2015.
