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Federal judge blocks Montana's TikTok ban before it takes effect The law is seen
an important test case. More than a dozen other states are weighing similar bans
of the wildly popular video-streaming app, which is owned by a Chinese tech
company.


TECHNOLOGY


FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS MONTANA'S TIKTOK BAN BEFORE IT TAKES EFFECT

November 30, 20236:24 PM ET

Bobby Allyn

Enlarge this image

A federal judge has halted a law in Montana from taking effect that would have
banned the popular video app TikTok across the state. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
hide caption

toggle caption
Drew Angerer/Getty Images


A federal judge has halted a law in Montana from taking effect that would have
banned the popular video app TikTok across the state.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

A federal judge has blocked a law in Montana that sought to ban TikTok across
the state, delivering a blow to an unprecedented attempt to completely restrict
a single app within a state's borders.

The ruling, which came on Thursday, means that Montana's TikTok ban, which was
set to go into effect on Jan. 1, has now been temporarily halted.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy said Montana's TikTok ban "oversteps state
power" and "likely violates the First Amendment."

Molloy wrote that though officials in Montana have defended the law as an
attempt to protect consumers in the state, there is "little doubt that Montana's
legislature and Attorney General were more interested in targeting China's
ostensible role in TikTok than with protecting Montana consumers," the judge
wrote.

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Montana, as a state, does not have authority over foreign affairs, Molloy said,
but even still, he found the national security case presented against TikTok
unconvincing, writing that if anything the Montana law had a "pervasive
undertone of anti-Chinese sentiment."

The ruling is preliminary. A final determination will be made following a trial
expected some time next year.

TikTok, which has more than 150 million American users, has for years been under
intense scrutiny over fears that its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance,
would hand over sensitive user data to Chinese authorities, or that Beijing
would use the app as a propaganda tool — even though there is no public proof
that either has ever happened.


POLITICS


MONTANA BECOMES THE FIRST STATE TO BAN TIKTOK

Although several states and the federal government have prohibited the app from
being downloaded on government devices, Montana was the first state to pass an
outright ban of the app. Some critics have accused it of government overreach.

In May, TikTok sued the state over the law, arguing that it amounts to an
illegal suppression of free speech. Lawyers for TikTok argued that the national
security threat raised by officials in Montana was never supported by solid
evidence.


TECHNOLOGY


TIKTOK SUES MONTANA OVER ITS NEW LAW BANNING THE APP

Molloy, the judge overseeing the case, was skeptical of the ban in an October
hearing on the lawsuit. He pointed out that TikTok users voluntarily provide
their personal data, despite state officials suggesting the app was stealing the
data of users. He said state officials justified the Montana ban under a
"paternalistic argument."

As Washington continues to debate TikTok's future, states have been acting
faster, and the law in Montana was considered an important test case of whether
a state-level ban of the app would survive court challenges.



Backing the Montana law were 18 mostly Republican-led states that were eyeing
similar bans of TikTok. Aside from the legal hurdles to implementing such laws,
cybersecurity experts have raised questions about how, from a technical
standpoint, such a ban would even be possible.

President Trump clamped down on TikTok and attempted to outlaw the app, but his
efforts were twice struck down in the courts.


TECHNOLOGY


U.S. JUDGE HALTS TRUMP'S TIKTOK BAN, THE 2ND COURT TO FULLY BLOCK THE ACTION

National security experts say TikTok is caught in the middle of escalating
geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China, as Washington grows ever more
concerned about the advancement of Chinese tech, like semiconductors, and the
country's investments in artificial intelligence.

Supporters of restricting or banning TikTok in the U.S. point to Chinese
national security laws that compel private companies to turn information over to
Beijing authorities.

They also point to ByteDance, TikTok's corporate owner. It admitted in December
that it had fired four employees, two of whom worked in China, who had
improperly accessed data on two journalists in an attempt to identify a company
employee who leaked a damaging internal report.

TikTok says China-based employees no longer have access to U.S. user data under
a new firewall it has put in place with the help of Texas-based software giant
Oracle. The planned, dubbed Project Texas, stores all Americans' data on served
owned and maintained by Oracle, with additional oversight from independent
auditors.

Still, China hawks say anything short of ByteDance selling TikTok to an American
company will not assuage national security concerns.

Recently, national security officials in Washington resumed trying to reach a
deal with TikTok to keep the app operational in the U.S.

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