A federal judge temporarily blocked Montana’s ban on TikTok on Thursday, one month before the law was set to take effect.
Montana became the first state to pass a total ban on the app. Other states have banned the use of the app on government-issued devices, citing national-security concerns about the Chinese-owned social-media platform.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy issued a preliminary injunction on Thursday after finding that the ban “oversteps state power and infringes on the constitutional rights of users.”
Montana governor Greg Gianforte signed the bill into law in May. The measure, which builds upon a December 2022 ban of the platform on state equipment, would like entities that violate the law to be subject to a $10,000 fine for each discrete violation. Offenders would be liable for an additional $10,000 each day thereafter that the violation continues.
The law would leave TikTok and mobile-app stores, such as those operated by Apple and Google, subject to the fines if they do not restrict access to the app.
“The Chinese Communist Party using TikTok to spy on Americans, violate their privacy, and collect their personal, private, and sensitive information is well-documented,” Gianforte said in a statement when he signed the measure into law.“Today, Montana takes the most decisive action of any state to protect Montanans’ private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party.”
The judge’s ruling comes in response to a lawsuit brought by five content creators who argued that the ban infringed on their freedom of speech and exercised “power over national security that Montana does not have.”
TikTok also sued the state over the law.
A spokeswoman for the Montana attorney general’s office responded to the ruling on Thursday by saying that “this is a preliminary matter at this point.”
“The judge indicated several times that the analysis could change as the case proceeds and the State has the opportunity to present a full factual record,” she said in a statement to NBC News. “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.”