A US federal judge has said he is confused by US state, Montana’s ban on TikTok.
During a hearing in Missoula on Thursday, District Judge Donald W. Molloy asked if the state was the one to decide whether users shared their data with the app or not. He also did not seem convinced with the evidence the state presented citing national security worries for the ban.
“TikTok is asking for information that the users consent to and they give that voluntarily to TikTok,” Molloy said. “Your argument just confuses me.”
In his defense, attorney representing the state of Montana, Christian Corrigan argued that there was no other way to protect the safety of Montanans other than a “flat ban” due to the security risks posed by the app’s owner; Chinese company, ByteDance.
Judge Molloy asked Corrigan if the state found any documents provided by TikTok to support its national security concerns. Corrigan said, “We did not.”
In an earlier report by TechCity, TikTok parent company ByteDance, maintains that it has never shared any US data with the Chinese government. This came when the US government, and about 24 US states moved to ban the app on government devices with states and university communities following suit.
Earlier this year, TikTok and a few other platform creators sued Montana, calling the state’s TikTok ban unconstitutional and an infringement on the rights of both the company and users.
If Montana state wins the court case, the ban will stay and effective next year, Montana residents will be unable to download TikTok altogether.