Montana TikTok ban co-author eager to see bill passed and tested in courts
Christopher Hutton
Montana’s attorney general said he is hopeful that a pending statewide ban of TikTok he helped author could help set a legal precedent for a national ban on the social media platform.
Montana lawmakers are set to vote to pass a statewide ban of TikTok over its privacy breaches and affiliations with the Chinese Communist Party. The bill, known as SB 419, was passed by the state Senate and is being considered by the House this week.
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Montana Republicans are hoping to be the first in the nation to pass an outright ban on TikTok, which also faces legislative threats in Congress. Critics, though, say the bill violates freedom of speech. But Attorney General Austin Knudsen said he is eager to see the legislation face litigation after enactment.
The free speech concerns are an “interesting legal question,” Knudsen, a Republican, told the Washington Examiner. “And candidly, that’s part of the reason that we brought this legislation. I think this needs to go to the courts. I think this is a really, really novel, interesting area of undeveloped jurisprudence that we need the courts to step into.”
Knudsen’s office was involved in the creation of the legislation.
Knudsen noted the “town square” nature of social media and argued that such a case could deal with whether a company like TikTok should be considered a private company or public utility. The argument echoes claims that other conservatives have made regarding the need to reform Section 230, a 1996 law that protects websites from being held liable for content posted by users.
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A coalition of left-leaning free speech groups has spoken out against Montana’s proposed ban. “Banning TikTok in Montana would raise serious First Amendment concerns and is not the appropriate way to protect the privacy of user’s data or respond to content on the app that lawmakers disapprove of,” Caitlin Vogus, deputy director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said in a statement.
Congress is considering multiple bills that could limit TikTok within the United States. Full-on bans have been proposed by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Marco Rubio (R-FL). A bipartisan group of senators has introduced the RESTRICT Act, a bill that would provide additional powers to the Commerce Department to review transactions with tech companies operating out of foreign nations of concern like Russia or China. The White House has also threatened to ban TikTok if its parent company, ByteDance, does not divest its interests in the app.
Knudsen said he was skeptical that Congress could pass one of the many proposed bans but said Montana’s ban would be upheld unless the White House successfully got China to divest from TikTok.
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The Montana state Senate voted on March 2 to pass SB 419, and the House is considering the bill this week. If passed, it will be sent to Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) to be signed into law. The governor passed a statewide ban on installing TikTok on government devices and has regularly criticized it for its Chinese connections.
Local businesses are unhappy with the ban, claiming it would diminish their returns in advertising.