Judge hears arguments from TikTok and content creators who are challenging Montana's ban on app
TikTok and Montana faced off in federal court on Thursday in a case filed by the video sharing app and five Montana content creators who want the court to temporarily block the state's ban on the platform before it takes effect Jan. 1.
Attorneys for TikTok and the content creators argued that the state has gone «completely overboard» in trying to regulate TikTok and is essentially trying to implement its own foreign policy over unproven concerns that TikTok might share user data with the Chinese government.
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U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy said he would rule on the motion for a preliminary injunction as quickly as possible.
In May, Montana became the first state in the U.S. to pass a complete ban on the app, based on the argument that the Chinese government could gain access to user information from TikTok, whose parent company, ByteDance, is based in Beijing.
TikTok has said in court filings that the state passed its law based on «unsubstantiated allegations,» and that the state could have limited the kinds of data TikTok could collect rather than enacting a complete ban.
Content creators say the ban violates free speech rights and could cause economic harm for their businesses.
Ambik
