{"id":262294,"date":"2026-02-24T18:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/montanafreepress.org\/?p=262294"},"modified":"2026-02-26T09:28:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T16:28:19","slug":"the-first-in-the-nation-tiktok-ban-that-wasnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montanafreepress.org\/2026\/02\/24\/the-first-in-the-nation-tiktok-ban-that-wasnt\/","title":{"rendered":"The first-in-the-nation TikTok ban that wasn\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Montana judge has mooted the state\u2019s would-be TikTok ban before it could block a single viral video.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy on Feb. 20 concluded the case over the legality of the Montana Legislature\u2019s TikTok ban, which had been paused since Molloy temporarily blocked its implementation in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Molloy’s decision<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Several Montana users of the popular social media platform, along with TikTok\u2019s Chinese owner, ByteDance, filed lawsuits<\/a> days after the ban law was signed. That civil litigation was later combined into a single case against the state, defended by Attorney General Austin Knudsen. The challenge alleged the law violated the First Amendment and overstepped the authority of state government by wading into national security issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Molloy dismissed the case on the basis of a clause in the law, which Gov. Greg Gianforte signed<\/a> in May 2023, that voided the ban if ByteDance sold a majority share of TikTok to a non-Chinese company. That change of ownership occurred in January<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2023 Legislature\u2019s TikTok ban<\/a> grew out of concerns about Chinese access to Americans\u2019 data. It was the first statewide attempt to ban TikTok in the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement<\/a> on Feb. 20, Knudsen lauded the transfer of ownership that led to the case\u2019s dismissal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPresident Trump, with his years of business and negotiation experience, worked diligently and succeeded in finding the right American company to purchase TikTok and make sure that Montanans and Americans will no longer be spied on by a foreign adversary,\u201d Knudsen wrote. \u201cToday\u2019s dismissal ends years of litigation, brought on by TikTok, and will stop wasting taxpayers\u2019 money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state Department of Justice did not respond to a Montana Free Press request for an interview for this story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knudsen\u2019s office signaled its support for the Montana law banning TikTok<\/a> when it was first heard in the Legislature in February 2023. Department of Justice Crime Information Bureau Chief Anne Dormady testified in support of the bill at its initial hearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\t\n\t\t

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Gianforte signs TikTok ban<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t

The Chinese-owned social media platform will be illegal in Montana starting Jan. 1, 2024, barring a successful court challenge.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

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The bill passed out of the Legislature with mostly Republican support. Gianforte expressed concerns<\/a> that the bill\u2019s language might subject it to a legal challenge, but ultimately signed it<\/a> in spring 2023. The law immediately drew multiple court challenges<\/a>. Before the ban could take effect as scheduled in January 2024, Molloy blocked it<\/a> in November 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That year marked an uptick<\/a> in the federal government\u2019s scrutiny of TikTok over national security concerns. The Biden administration mandated<\/a> that agency employees delete the app from government-issued mobile devices in February. And in March, members of Congress peppered TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew with questions about data privacy during a marathon hearing<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Montana\u2019s ban languished in court, Biden signed a law in 2024<\/a> banning the social media app unless ByteDance sold it within the following 270 days. That law survived a slew of legal challenges<\/a>, and TikTok ultimately blocked American users for a few hours on Jan. 18, 2025, a day before the federal law required it to. On Jan. 19, Trump assured the company<\/a> he would issue an executive order that would extend ByteDance\u2019s window to sell. He did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, Trump extended the sale window<\/a> on four separate occasions, allowing TikTok to continue to operate in the U.S. The company finalized a deal<\/a> on Jan. 22, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ByteDance retains 19.9% ownership of the new U.S. entity that owns TikTok. Other investors with substantial shares include technology conglomerate Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and United Arab Emirates-owned investment company MGX.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That deal made Montana\u2019s 2023 state law moot based on a clause in the state legislation voiding the ban if majority ownership was transferred away from a federally designated \u201cforeign adversary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But some legal experts are casting doubt about whether that transfer actually mitigates concerns of Chinese access to Americans\u2019 data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timothy Edgar, a cybersecurity expert at Brown University and Harvard Law School, filed an amicus brief<\/a> in 2024 that argued against forcing ByteDance to divest from TikTok on constitutional grounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edgar said data privacy concerns had been better addressed at the end of Trump\u2019s first term and early in the presidency of Joe Biden, when pressure from the executive branch forced TikTok to negotiate terms with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt that those restrictions were really quite significant, and no other social media company in the world has ever done anything like that,\u201d Edgar said. Edgar said the forced sale that made Montana\u2019s ban moot could give users a false sense of security. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI actually worry that there’s going to be less oversight of TikTok’s data, less pressure to uphold some of the requirements in that data safeguarding agreement that they had,\u201d Edgar said. \u201cAnd so, in a way, we’re in a worse position now than we were when TikTok was owned by ByteDance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edgar emphasized that potential security risks remain, despite the company diluting its Chinese ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey focused on the wrong thing,\u201d Edgar said about the supporters of the forced sale. \u201cThey focused on who owns the company instead of on what are the real risks? How would a country like China get ahold of data? And what are we going to do to protect our personal data against China? And, you know, TikTok is certainly one potential vulnerability, but there are so many others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was updated Feb. 26, 2026, to correct the spelling of Anne Dormady\u2019s name, to correct ByteDance CEO Shou Zi Chew\u2019s name, to correct the date TikTok was sold, and to correct the entity that is 19.9% owned by ByteDance.<\/strong><\/em>
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