Federal judge blocks Montana TikTok ban

TikTok has won its first battle against the state of Montana. A federal judge has granted the video platform’s request for a preliminary injunction that will temporarily block the state’s ban of the app, Variety reports and court documents confirm.

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed the ban into law in May, claiming it was essential to “protect Montanans’ private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party” (TikTok is owned by the Chinese technology company ByteDance). A national ban of TikTok has been threatened by both the Trump and Biden administrations, both of which have pressured ByteDance to divest from the app. TikTok has said that China’s government does not have access to U.S. user data, but that claim has been called into question by allegations from a former ByteDance executive.

Montana’s statewide ban was scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2024, but U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy temporarily blocked it on Thursday (November 30), “until a final determination on the merits” of the law can be made. The state had argued that the bill did not regulate speech and therefore would not have First Amendment implications. Disagreeing with this assessment, the judge wrote in his ruling that the ban “is unlikely to pass even intermediate scrutiny [and] likely violates the First Amendment.”

In a press statement, a TikTok spokesperson wrote that the company was “pleased the judge rejected this unconstitutional law and hundreds of thousands of Montanans can continue to express themselves, earn a living, and find community on TikTok.”

Montana’s Attorney General’s office responded to the ruling by noting its temporary nature. “We look forward to presenting the complete legal argument to defend the law that protects Montanans from the Chinese Communist Party obtaining and using their data,” a representative wrote.

Read Judge Molloy’s full ruling below, via CourtListener.