Predictably, TikTok has filed a lawsuit against Montana in an effort to reverse that state’s ban on the social media platform.
Montana became the first US state to institute a full ban of TikTok, a ban that is scheduled to go into effect January 1, 2024. According to The Wall Street Journal, TikTok has filed a lawsuit challenging the ban.
“We are challenging Montana’s unconstitutional TikTok ban to protect our business and the hundreds of thousands of TikTok users in Montana,” TikTok said in a statement Monday.
Experts have warned that Montana’s ban faces major legal challenges.
“The first amendment argument is a very strong one,” Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, told WSJ.
“The claim from Montana is that they’re protecting national security and that is something squarely within the domain of the federal government, not left to the state,” he added.
In addition to the legal challenges, there are technical issues involved in implementing the ban. Montana’s ban says that Apple and Google must not allow TikTok to be accessible within the state via their app stores. How exactly that would work is anyone’s guess.
Given the significant issues involved, it’s a safe bet that Montana’s ban will last about as long as a TikTok video.
