TikTok has filed a lawsuit to prevent residents of the US state of Montana from restricting access to its social media platform.
Monday’s lawsuit comes after last week Montana became the first US state to impose a major ban on a Chinese-owned video-sharing platform.
In a statement, TikTok said the ban violates US free speech rights.
TikTok has come under scrutiny from authorities around the world over concerns that data could be passed on to the Chinese government.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in the United States District Court for Montana, says it is suing to overturn the “unlawful” ban.
“We are challenging Montana’s unconstitutional TikTok ban to protect our business and the millions of TikTok users in Montana,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“We are confident that our legal challenge will prevail based on much stronger precedent and facts.”
The TikTok lawsuit argues that the ban violates the constitutional First Amendment right to free speech.
The company’s complaint said the ban “unconstitutionally closes the speech forum to all speakers on the app”.
The ban is scheduled to come into force in January 2024. This would make it illegal to offer TikTok for app stores, but does not prevent people who already have TikTok from using it.
Montana, which has a population of just over a million, banned the app on government devices last December.
TikTok says it has 150 million US users. Although the app’s user base has expanded in recent years, it is still most popular among users in their teens and 20s.
However, there are concerns across the US political spectrum that TikTok could pose a threat to national security.
The social media platform is owned by ByteDance – a Chinese company. ByteDance has repeatedly denied that it is controlled by the Chinese government.
The lawsuit also argues that Montana overstepped its authority over consumer data and national security — which is the jurisdiction of the federal government.
It says the ban is based on “baseless speculation” that the Chinese government may have access to TikTok data.
Attorneys for Montana’s government previously said they expected a lawsuit, and were prepared to defend the ban in court.
