A lawsuit over First Amendment rights began Thursday in Montana after a group of TikTok users challenged the state’s new TikTok ban, which goes into effect Jan. 1 and is the first of its kind in the country.
The TikTok users said in a lawsuit that the law violated their First Amendment rights, claiming that the ban, which Gov. Greg Gianforte signed into law Wednesday, far exceeded Montana’s legal authority as a state. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. district court on Wednesday, but was added to a public record system on Thursday.
The ban has also sparked outrage from TikTok and civil liberties and digital rights groups. Montana lawmakers and Mr. Gianforte, a Republican, say the ban is necessary to prevent Americans’ personal information from falling into the hands of the Chinese government. TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.
By law, TikTok will be fined for using the app in the state, and app store providers like Google and Apple will be fined if TikTok is available for download in Montana.
No plans for a lawsuit were announced on Thursday by TikTok itself or by leading civil liberties groups. Brooke Oberwetter, a spokeswoman for TikTok, declined to comment on the likelihood that the company will file a lawsuit.
But Ms. Oberwetter said Wednesday, after the bill was signed, that the ban violated the First Amendment rights of people in Montana and that the company would continue to “work to defend the rights of our users.” She said Thursday that a 2020 federal ban would not stand up to legal scrutiny and that Montana had no workable plan to implement the ban.
Ms Oberwetter also pointed to statements from civil and digital rights groups expressing similar concerns. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit.
Ramya Krishnan, a lawyer at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said the US Constitution protected Americans’ access rights to the social media platforms of their choice. To justify a ban, Ms. Krishnan, Montana would have to demonstrate that his privacy and security concerns were real and that they couldn’t be addressed in any scarier ways.
“I don’t think TikTok has committed to a lawsuit yet, but I think it probably will,” she said. “Because this is such a dramatic and unconstitutional violation of Americans’ First Amendment rights, we are certainly considering the possibility of getting involved in some way.”
NetChoice, a trade group that counts TikTok as a member and has sued in the past to block state laws against tech companies, also said in a statement that the ban violated the constitution. Krista Chavez, a spokeswoman for the group, said NetChoice has “no current plans to file a lawsuit” to challenge the law.
The Montana plaintiffs are five residents who “create, publish, view, use and share videos on TikTok,” according to their lawsuit. Their lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit said Montana “can no more ban its residents from viewing or posting TikTok than it could ban The Wall Street Journal because of who owns it or the ideas it publishes.” The users also argued that the law violated provisions of the constitution that give the federal government exclusive power over foreign affairs and prohibit states from regulating interstate commerce.
TikTok users have already managed to block a ban from the app. In 2020, a judge sided with a group of creators challenging an attempt to ban the app by President Donald J. Trump. TikTok and ByteDance have also sued separately to stop the president’s actions.
Montana passed the law after the federal government and more than two dozen states banned TikTok from government devices in recent months. Lawmakers and intelligence officials have said that due to its ownership, TikTok could put sensitive user data in the hands of the Chinese government. They have also argued that the app can be used to spread propaganda.
TikTok says it has never been asked to provide US user data to the Chinese government, nor has it provided it.
Many have assumed that China could demand that ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, hand over Americans’ data or use TikTok to spread disinformation in some way, but neither Montana nor the U.S. government has pointed to any proof that China is actually doing this.” Mrs. Krishnan said. “That’s a problem because speculative harm cannot justify a total ban on a communications platform, especially one used by hundreds of thousands of Montanans every day.”
In addition to the legal battle, many experts raised questions about whether the law could be enforced. Internet users can use virtual private network software to disguise their location. Individuals living in Montana border towns may be able to access TikTok and other mobile apps through cell towers in neighboring states.
In an email, Emilee Cantrell, a spokeswoman for the state’s Attorney General Austin Knudsen, said there was existing technology to restrict the use of apps within a specific location. The technique, known as geofencing, is “already in use in the gaming industry,” which is also regulated by the state’s Justice Department, Ms Cantrell said.
“A simple web search will show you companies that comply with geolocation rules,” she said. If companies fail to comply with the ban, she continued, the agency will “investigate and hold violators accountable in accordance with the law.”
Asked about the lawsuit filed by TikTok users, a second spokeswoman for Mr Knudsen, who has been named the defendant in the lawsuit, said later on Thursday that his office was “expecting a legal challenge” and was “fully prepared to comply with the law.” to defend”.
The legislation places responsibility for enforcing the ban on TikTok, Apple and Google. Under the law, TikTok can be fined $10,000 for each individual violation of the ban and an additional $10,000 for each day a violation continues. Apple and Google would face the same fines if they allowed the app to be downloaded in the state.
While the state legislature was considering the ban, a trade group representing Apple and Google said it would be impossible for the companies to restrict access to an app within a single state.
“The responsibility should be on an app to determine where it can work, not an app store,” David Edmonson, vice president of TechNet, the trade group, said in a statement Thursday.
Google and Apple declined to comment.
