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TikTok Creators Sue Montana for Banning the App — Retail Bum
A group of TikTok creators has sued the state of Montana for violating their first amendment rights by banning the use of the app.
On Wednesday, May 17, 2023, Montana’s Governor Greg Gianforte signed the first state-level ban in the U.S. that would prevent Apple and Google from enabling users to download the app in the state, effective January 1, 2024. While signing the bill, Gianforte argued that the move was meant to protect the personal and private data of Montanans from getting harvested by the Chinese Communist Party.
However, the plaintiffs, which include a rancher, a small swimwear company, an exercise influencer and a former marine sergeant with a combined following of millions, argue that the state is seeking to “exercise powers over national security that Montana does not have and to ban speech Montana may not suppress.”
“Montana can no more ban its residents from viewing or posting to TikTok than it could ban the Wall Street Journal because of who owns it or the ideas it publishes,” the lawsuit said.
The state’s Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who has been named in the lawsuit, said they were expecting a case and are ready to defend the law.
Even though Montana is the first state to impose an outright ban on the use of the app…