TikTok has filed a lawsuit to prevent Montana, a US state, from banning residents from using its social media platform.
The lawsuit was filed in response to last week’s passage of a broad ban on the Chinese-owned video-sharing platform by Montana, which made history as the first US state to do so.
TikTok has drawn the attention of authorities from all over the world due to worries that data might be passed to the Chinese government.
The “unlawful” ban is being challenged, according to the lawsuit submitted to the United States District Court for the District of Montana
“We are challenging Montana’s unconstitutional TikTok ban to protect our business and the hundreds of thousands of TikTok users in Montana,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“We believe our legal challenge will prevail based on an exceedingly strong set of precedents and facts.”
According to the TikTok lawsuit, the ban violates the First Amendment’s right to freedom of speech.
According to the company’s complaint, the ban was “unconstitutionally shutting down the forum for speech for all speakers on the app”.
In January 2024, the ban is scheduled to go into effect.
However, it does not prevent users who already own TikTok from using it. It will make it illegal for app stores to offer TikTok.
The federal government should be in charge of matters such as user data and national security, the lawsuit claims, and Montana has overstepped its bounds.
The “unfounded speculation” that the Chinese government could access TikTok data, according to the statement, is the basis for the ban.
Source-BBC
