TikTok Ban in Montana Draws Pushback From Digital Rights Backers

Digital and civil rights advocates have joined tech industry groups and TikTok creators in opposing Montana’s broad ban of the popular Chinese-owned short-video app.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation called the measure “a sweeping ban on free expression” in a legal brief filed Friday in the US District Court for the District of Montana.

The groups are throwing their support behind a push for a court-ordered pause on enforcing the policy as part of a lawsuit brought by TikTok and its content creators. Tech groups NetChoice and the Chamber of Progress previously urged the court to block the state’s restrictions, warning of harm to small businesses that rely on the video-sharing platform.

Montana’s pending ban is the strongest reaction so far to security concerns raised over potential Chinese government access to American users’ personal data via TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company ByteDance Ltd.

Other states have blocked TikTok’s use on government devices, but the Montana law would prohibit the app’s download by the general public beginning Jan. 1, 2024.

Montana policymakers also have cited children’s exposure to harmful content on TikTok as a factor in favor of limiting the app’s use.

Digital rights groups argue that shutting down TikTok in the state infringes on free speech and requires close scrutiny under the First Amendment.

“It deliberately singles out a communications platform, imposing a blanket prohibition that will make it impossible for users to speak, access information, and associate through TikTok,” the brief from the ACLU and EFF said.

“It also plainly raises the issue of political bias and motivation, singling out TikTok because of its foreign ownership even as other major social media platforms raise similar privacy and content-moderation issues,” the brief said.

The case is Alario et al v. Knudsen, D. Mont., No. 9:23-cv-0056, brief filed 8/11/23.