Afcacia

TikTok has moved to court seeking to stop the US state of Montana’s move to ban residents from using its social media platform.
The court case comes after Montana became the first US state to pass a total ban on the video-sharing platform.
TikTok said the ban conflicts with US free speech rights.
The social media platform has come under scrutiny from authorities around the world over concerns private ddata could be passed to the Chinese government.
“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.”
TikTok says the ban violates the constitutional First Amendment right to free speech.
The company’s complaint states that the ban was “unconstitutionally shutting down the forum for speech for all speakers on the app”.
The ban is due to take effect in January 2024. It will make it illegal for app stores to offer TikTok, but does not ban people who already have TikTok from using it.
Montana, which has a population of just over one million, banned the app on government devices last December.
It is estimated that there are 150 million American TikTok users.
Washington is concerned that TikTok could pose a national security risk.
The social media platform is owned by ByteDance – a Chinese company. ByteDance has repeatedly denied it is controlled by the Chinese government.
TikTok has faulted Montana’s move arguing that is has overstepped its authority by concerning itself with users’ data and national security – which is the purview of the federal government.
It says the ban is based on the “unfounded speculation” that China’s government could access TikTok data.
Lawyers for Montana’s government have previously said that they expected lawsuits, and that they are prepared to defend the ban in courts.