Current:Home > ScamsFederal judge blocks Montana's TikTok ban before it takes effect-LoTradeCoin
Federal judge blocks Montana's TikTok ban before it takes effect
View Date:2024-12-23 15:16:15
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 halted.
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.
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.
U.S. District Judge Donald 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.
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.
veryGood! (2)
Related
- Deebo Samuel explains 'out of character' sideline altercation with 49ers long snapper, kicker
- Live Nation and Ticketmaster tell Biden they're going to show fees up front
- How ending affirmative action changed California
- This $41 Dress Is a Wardrobe Essential You Can Wear During Every Season of the Year
- Avril Lavigne’s Ex Mod Sun Is Dating Love Is Blind Star Brittany Wisniewski, Debuts Romance With a Kiss
- What the Vanderpump Rules Cast Has Been Up to Since Cameras Stopped Rolling
- A University of Maryland Center Just Gave Most State Agencies Ds and Fs on an Environmental Justice ‘Scorecard’
- The inventor's dilemma
- Jessica Simpson’s Sister Ashlee Simpson Addresses Eric Johnson Breakup Speculation
- Mobile Homes, the Last Affordable Housing Option for Many California Residents, Are Going Up in Smoke
Ranking
- Drone footage captures scope of damage, destruction from deadly Louisville explosion
- Inside Clean Energy: Navigating the U.S. Solar Industry’s Spring of Discontent
- Inside Clean Energy: Here Are The People Who Break Solar Panels to Learn How to Make Them Stronger
- Jessica Simpson Seemingly Shades Ex Nick Lachey While Weighing in On Newlyweds' TikTok Resurgence
- Florida Man Arrested for Cold Case Double Murder Almost 50 Years Later
- Community and Climate Risk in a New England Village
- A New Website Aims to Penetrate the Fog of Pollution Permitting in Houston
- The Truth About Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon's Enduring 35-Year Marriage
Recommendation
-
NBC's hospital sitcom 'St. Denis Medical' might heal you with laughter: Review
-
A Houston Firm Says It’s Opening a Billion-Dollar Chemical Recycling Plant in a Small Pennsylvania Town. How Does It Work?
-
'It's gonna be a hot labor summer' — unionized workers show up for striking writers
-
It's National Tequila Day 2023: See deals, recipes and drinks to try
-
32-year-old Maryland woman dies after golf cart accident
-
Untangling All the Controversy Surrounding Colleen Ballinger
-
The Terrifying True Story of the Last Call Killer
-
How Jill Duggar Is Parenting Her Own Way Apart From Her Famous Family