Ban on TikTok Will Have To Wait

We know what you're thinking. What ban?

Well, don't feel bad. We didn't know until today.


Here's the deal. The great state of Montana decided TikTok was no longer going to be welcome and instituted an unprecedented state-wide ban on the Chinese app. The ban was supposed to take effect on January 1, 2024.

This leaves us with a whole bunch of questions, not the least of which is, how is this even legal?

But it looks like the court system beat us to it.

With only a month to spare, US District Judge Donald Molloy issued a preliminary injunction to stop the ban at least temporarily. ByteDance and app stores can continue to allow TikTok users in Montana to download the app without getting hit with a $10,000-a-day fine.

The judge who halted the ban said the move to ban TikTok "oversteps state power and infringes on the constitutional rights of users." We're glad somebody's paying attention.

Five TikTok creators filed legal challenges in May, a day after the bill was signed. The platform's owner, ByteDance, sued later that same month.

The bill was originally written based on claims that the Chinese app shared users' data with the Chinese government. Remember that claim. ByteDance said in August 2020, "TikTok US user data is stored in the US, with strict controls on employee access." The company again assured us our data was safe in its recent transparency push.

The proposed ban raises questions, as we mentioned earlier. How do you tell an entire state it doesn't have the right to access an application or be a part of a social media platform? Who is going to be the watchdog? Many wonder how Google, Apple, and other app stores can enforce such a ban. The logistics alone are enough to keep you up at night.

Montana is the only state that has tried a move this bold. We'll see how it works out for them.

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