18 GOP State AGs Defend Mont. TikTok Ban as ‘Justified’ Consumer Protection Law
Montana’s statewide TikTok ban, SB-419, “is appropriately protecting its citizens’ privacy from TikTok and its troubling relationship with China,” said the Republican attorneys general of Virginia and 17 other states in an amici brief Monday (docket 9:23-cv-00061) in U.S. District Court for Montana in Missoula. The AGs oppose the plaintiffs’ consolidated motions for a preliminary injunction to block Montana AG Austin Knudsen (R) from enforcing SB-419 when it takes effect Jan. 1 (see 2309050003).
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The states’ police power “has always included the power to protect their citizens from deceptive and harmful business practices,” said the brief. Montana’s SB-419 “is just the latest in a storied tradition of consumer protection laws,” it said. SB-419 is “justified,” and the plaintiffs’ motions for a preliminary injunction should be denied, it said.
TikTok “intentionally engages in deceptive business practices,” inducing individuals to share “sensitive personal information that can be easily accessed by the Chinese Communist Party,” said the brief. TikTok’s platform “harms children in Montana” and the 18 amici states, it said. Federal law doesn’t prohibit the states “from protecting their citizens from such conduct,” it said.
TikTok does more than merely acquire user data “to hook its users,” said the brief. As the Montana legislature found when it enacted SB-419, TikTok gathers significant information from its users, accessing data against their will to share with China, it said. That stealing of information and data from users and TikTok’s ability to share that data with the Chinese Communist Party unacceptably infringes on U.S. citizens’ right to privacy, it said.
The Montana legislature also said TikTok may even promote dangerous content that directs minors to engage in dangerous activities, said the brief. It cited examples in SB-419's legislative history that included kids throwing objects at moving cars, pouring hot wax on another person's face or smearing human feces on toddlers, all inspired by TikTok content, according to SB-419's backers.
Confronted with these “grave" concerns over privacy and public safety, Montana enacted SB-419 to prohibit the use of a dangerous product, “unless that product were altered to remedy the concerns animating the legislation,” said the brief. The plaintiffs ask the court to “disregard” TikTok’s grave conduct and preliminarily enjoin SB-419, it said. The court “should deny their requests for an injunction,” it said.