Montana is appealing the ruling that banned its use of TikTok Credit: Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Montana is appealing a decision by a US judge in November to block the US state’s ban on the use of TikTok.

Austin Knudsen, Montana Attorney General, filed a notice on Tuesday, 2 January 2024, appealing the ruling. 

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The ban was due to be enforced from the beginning of January but the ban was blocked by District Judge Donald Molloy on 30 November 2023. Molloy claimed the ban “oversteps state power” and “violates the Constitution in more ways than one”.

The notice follows a lawsuit filed last year by TikTok users to block the ban in Montana, which was approved by the state over national security and privacy concerns from Chinese spying. 

TikTok refuted the allegations in previous court documents, claiming that it has not “shared, and would not share, US user data with the Chinese government, and has taken substantial measures to protect the privacy and security of TikTok users.”

The Chinese-owned social media platform has faced attempted bans from other areas of the US government. The Biden administration have previously looked to gain powers to put restrictions on the app, although the efforts have been unsuccessful so far.

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TikTok is banned on most government-owned devices but Montana made history becoming the first US state to ban the app completely.

According to GlobalData’s Social Media Thematic Research 2023 report, social media companies will increasingly diversify away from their adfunded business model in the face of increased regulatory scrutiny.

In 2023 alone, Alphabet, Amazon, ByteDance, and Meta were fined a combined $7.7bn for breaching data privacy laws over their ad-targeting practices, according to the report.

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