The communist Chinese government-tied TikTok is hypocritically lashing out at Montana for protecting its citizens’ data security.
Days after Montana became the first state to ban the Chinese Communist Party-tied app, TikTok launched legal warfare against the state government in court in an effort to continue sweeping up Americans’ data for its communist overlords in Beijing.
TikTok dubbed the ban “unconstitutional” in a Monday tweet, claiming the lawsuit will “protect” their business and “the hundreds of thousands” of TikTok users in Montana. What a joke.
“We believe our legal challenge will prevail based on an exceedingly strong set of precedents and facts,” the TikTok communications team continued. These remarks were echoed by TikTok attorneys, who in the Monday lawsuit accused Montana of enacting the ban on “nothing more than unfounded speculation,” including what they called “claims that the government of the People’s Republic of China, [..] could access data about TikTok users.” TikTok further argued in its lawsuit that “Montana’s ban abridges freedom of speech in violation of the First Amendment, violates the U.S. Constitution in multiple other respects, and is preempted by federal law.”
Media Research Center Founder and President Brent Bozell praised Montana in a May 18 tweet: “TikTok is a spy tool of the Chinese Communists. Kudos to Montana for banning it. More states need to follow suit,” said Bozell, who was echoed by MRC Free Speech America & MRC Business Director Michael Morris.
“It’s laughable that the communist Chinese government-tied platform TikTok is all of a sudden concerned about the American principle of free speech just weeks after censoring an entire company account on its platform,” said Morris. “If TikTok were truly concerned about free speech, it would allow organizations and individuals to freely express their opinions on a wide array of topics, including hot-button political issues like the harms associated with pushing anti-scientific transgenderism on children. Are we to believe that in a matter of days after a ban in Montana that the Chinese Communist Party-tied app agrees with America’s first liberties? Ridiculous.”
TikTok’s dubious claims have been debunked by several whistleblowers and media reports. Forbes reported in October 2022 that ByteDance, TikTok’s infamous parent company, planned to spy on the physical location of specific Americans. Another bombshell was released by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who brought forward a whistleblower who exposed how TikTok had overstated its separation from ByteDance and the CCP.
Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) and the state legislature cited threats to Montanans’ data privacy and the ties between China and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance among the primary reasons for the ban. “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 press release announcing the ban.
Several conservative personalities, including Montana’s own Senator Steve Daines (R), reacted to the TikTok lawsuit by rallying behind Montana and Gianforte. “Let’s just call TikTok for what it is—a Trojan Horse for the Chinese Communist Party,” said Daines in a Monday tweet, commending the Montana governor’s leadership.
Echoing Daines’s remarks, Claremont Institute Senior Fellow Jeremy Carl also reacted on Twitter, saying the Montana ban will protect residents from having their data “stolen and sent to Beijing by Chinese spyware.”
In a joint interview with CNN’s The Lead, Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) reacted to a separate damning lawsuit involving the infamous TikTok app’s parent company, which alleged that China has “maintained supreme access” to all its users’ data. Gallagher accused TikTok CEO Shou Chew of potentially lying before Congress when he claimed ByteDance is not owned by China.
“The allegations of this employee contradict in many ways the testimony of TikTok CEO before Congress months ago,” Gallagher told host Jake Tapper Friday.
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