US: Federal judge blocks Montana's TikTok ban, calls it unconstitutional

A US federal judge has blocked the ban issued on short-video sharing app TikTok by the state of Montana. The ban was to come into effect from January 1 but District Judge Donald Molloy issued the block, saying it violated the free speech right of users.

In May, earlier this year, Montana's Republican-dominated legislature became the first state in the US to pass a complete ban on the app. The state argued that the Chinese government could gain access to user information from TikTok whose parent company ByteDance is based out of Beijing.

However, Judge Molloysaid the ban “oversteps state power and infringes on the Constitutional right of users and businesses". He previously observed thatTikTok users voluntarily provide their personal data, despite state officials suggesting the app was stealing it from the users.

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Meanwhile,Christian Corrigan, the state’s solicitor general, argued that the ban was less a statement of foreign policy and instead addressed the "serious, widespread concerns" about data privacy.

WATCH |TikTok users file lawsuit to block Montana ban

TikTok goes to court

Notably, soon after MontanaGovernor Greg Gianforte signed the legislation, affirming the ban,TikTok sued the state.

"We are challenging Montana’s unconstitutional TikTok ban to protect our business and the hundreds of thousands of TikTok users in Montana," the company said in the court filing.

If the law was implemented, come New Year's, the state of Montana was looking toimpose fines of $10,000 for each violation by TikTok and additional fines of $10,000 per day if it violates the ban.

TikTok's growing popularity

TikTok, which has over 150 million American users,has grownquite popular among teenagers.According to the Pew Research Centre, 67 per centof 13to 17-year-olds in the United States use TikTok, while 16 per centof all adolescents use the app fairly daily. TikTok claims that the "vast majority" of its users are over the age of 18.

However, owing to the Chinese connection, the app has become the targetof politicians and state authorities, particularly in the US. Montana was being seen as the ideal laboratory to experiment how far the legislators could reach, to ban the app.

But with the federal court putting its foot down and blocking the ban, other Republican states that were eyeing similar legislation would have to hold their horses.

(With inputs from agencies)