Montana’s ban on TikTok is now on hold. The ban on the TikTok app implemented earlier this year in Montana has been put on hold. A federal judge in the state of the United States issued a temporary halt to implementing the ban on Thursday, citing that it violated the Constitution and was an excessive use of governmental authority.
To be more specific, the court concluded that the restriction was likely in violation of the First Amendment as well as a section that grants Congress the authority to regulate commerce with other countries.
In May of this year, Governor Greg Gianforte of Montana signed into law the most stringent limitation on social video apps in the United States. He claimed that the bill would prevent the Chinese Communist Party from accessing the private and personal information of Montanans. Even though ByteDance, a Beijing-based company, manages TikTok, American Oracle servers now house the data of its American users.
Shortly after that, TikTok filed a lawsuit against Montana about the newly enacted law, claiming that it violated the Constitution and that the state was going beyond its authority by regulating subjects about national security. TikTok requested an injunction against the prohibition when the issue was contested in court. In addition, five developers of TikTok filed separate lawsuits against the state of Montana, claiming that the ban violated their rights under the First Amendment.
After listening to the reasons presented by both parties, the court decided that TikTok was correct and prevented the ban from entering into effect for the time being.
The court’s opinion, which was issued concurrently with the injunction, was written by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy. He stated that even though Montana framed the law as one focused on consumer protection, there was “little doubt that Montana’s legislature and Attorney General were more interested in targeting China’s ostensible role in TikTok than in protecting Montana consumers.”
In addition, the judge stated that the prohibition “likely violates the First Amendment” since it is directed against speech. The judge pointed out that the prohibition would cause “irreparable harm” to TikTok and “irreparable harm” to creators. “By turning down TikTok, the legislature has not only violated the First Amendment rights of user plaintiffs, but it has also severed a source of money that many people find essential to their livelihood. Therefore, the plaintiffs have demonstrated that there is a possibility of suffering irreparable injury,” he stated.
There was a similar argument concerning creative revenue streams that were used to stop the ban on TikTok proposed by the Trump administration in 2020. The creators had filed a lawsuit, stating they would lose access to their followers and money.
If the Montana TikTok ban had been implemented on January 1, 2024, it would have resulted in a punishment of $10,000 being levied on either TikTok or the app shops for each instance in which a user requested access to TikTok or was presented with the opportunity to download TikTok. An extra ten thousand dollars in fines would be levied for each day the offense was allowed to continue. The prohibition will be put on hold until the court makes a final decision about the validity of the accusations that TikTok put up.
“We are pleased that the judge rejected this unconstitutional law and that hundreds of thousands of Montanans can continue to express themselves, earn a living, and find community on TikTok,” a spokesman for TikTok said in a statement regarding the injunction related to the case.
