Last Update: May 23, 2023, 03:56 AM IST
China passed legislation in 2014 and 2017 that compels companies to cooperate with the country’s government on state intelligence work. (Image: Reuters)
TikTok argues that the ban, which will take effect on January 1, violates the First Amendment rights of the company and users
TikTok Inc filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging Montana’s new ban on the use of the Chinese-owned app, which is the first state to ban the popular short-video sharing service.
TikTok argues that the ban, which will take effect on January 1, violates the First Amendment rights of the company and users.
The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Montana, also argues that the ban is pre-empted by federal law because it intrudes on matters of particular federal concern and violates the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution, which mandates lawmaking. Limits the authority of the states. which unnecessarily burdens interstate and foreign commerce.
TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance and is used by more than 150 million Americans, has come under increasing pressure from US lawmakers and state officials to ban the app nationwide over concerns about potential Chinese government influence on the platform. call is encountered.
Montana could fine TikTok up to $10,000 for each violation and an additional $10,000 per day it violates the ban. The law does not impose penalties on individual TikTok users. It’s unclear how Montana will enforce the TikTok ban.
In 2020 former President Donald Trump sought to block new downloads of TikTok and Chinese-owned WeChat, a unit of Tencent, and related transactions, which the companies said at the time effectively barred US use of the apps. But a series of court rulings prevented the bans from taking effect.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner said the prospect of federal courts overturning Montana’s ban made it even more urgent for Congress to pass legislation he called on the president to ban TikTok and other foreign-owned apps or Introduced to give new powers to impose sanctions.
TikTok is estimated to have hundreds of thousands of active users in the state, which has a total of about 1.1 million residents.
The company said in its lawsuit that it “has not and will not share US user data with the Chinese government, and has taken adequate measures to protect the privacy and security of TikTok users.”
Last week, five TikTok users in Montana filed suit in federal court to block the state’s ban.
TikTok’s lawsuit names Austin Knudsen, the Montana attorney general who is charged with enforcing the law. Knudsen’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Knudsen spokeswoman Emily Flower said the state is prepared for lawsuits. “We expected legal challenges and we are fully prepared to defend a law that helps protect the privacy and security of Montanans,” he said Monday.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – reuters,
