TikTok filed a lawsuit on Monday in the U.S. District Court of Montana to challenge the state’s ban of the social platform, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. The case was brought against the state Attorney General Austin Knudsen.
Montana’s governor signed the bill banning the app in the state last week, one month after the state’s legislature passed it. The following day, a group of creators sued the state along similar grounds as TikTok’s suit today. The law is set to take effect on January 1st, 2024.
We are challenging Montana’s unconstitutional TikTok ban to protect our business and the hundreds of thousands of TikTok users in Montana. We believe our legal challenge will prevail based on an exceedingly strong set of precedents and facts.
— TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) May 22, 2023
The law prohibits the ByteDance-owned platform from operating in the state, as well as preventing Apple’s and Google’s app stores from listing the TikTok app for download. Although it isn’t clear how Montana plans to enforce the ban, it states that violations will tally fines of $10,000 per day. However, individual TikTok users won’t be charged.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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