TikTok, a subsidiary of Chinese group ByteDance, filed a complaint on Monday against the US state of Montana which last week enacted a law to ban the app next year.
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This ban “violates the US Constitution in many ways,” the company asserts, in particular the First Amendment guaranteeing “freedom of speech,” according to the document reviewed by AFP.
Many US lawmakers believe that the short and entertaining video platform, which has 150 million Americans, allows Beijing to spy on and manipulate users. The platform has always denied these accusations.
But the Montana parliament adopted a text in mid-April that orders mobile app stores (Apple and Google) to stop distributing TikTok starting January 1, 2024, while Congress and the White House consider similar bills.
“TikTok exercises its editorial judgment, which is a constitutionally protected right, to distribute and promote content created by third parties,” the company’s lawyers say.
They also argue that the US state does not have the legal authority to block the app on national security grounds, which is a federal matter.
The complaint also refers to the principle of fairness. “Rather than regulating social networks in general, the law prohibits TikTok, and only TikTok for punitive reasons (…) based on speculative concerns about data security and content modification,” the authors and attorneys argued.
Elected officials in the state of Montana also accuse TikTok of having harmful effects on the health of youngsters (addiction and depression). Some Democratic representatives responded that other social networks, such as Instagram, deserve to be regulated on all of these topics.
The powerful ACLU civil rights group also accused the state of censorship.
“With this ban, Governor Gianforte and the Montana Legislature are trampling on the freedom of expression of hundreds of thousands of Montanaans who use this app to express themselves, find information, and promote their small businesses, on behalf of anti-Chinese sentiment,” Keegan Medrano, an official with the local chapter of the ACLU, said. In a statement on Wednesday.
Shortly after the governor of this northwestern US state, Greg Gianforte, signed the law into law, five TikTok users filed an appeal in Montana federal court asking for the decision to be overturned.
