TikTok has won its first battle against the state of Montana. A federal judge has granted the video platform’s request for a preliminary injunction that will temporarily block the state’s ban of the app, Variety reports and court documents confirm.
Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed the ban into law in May, claiming it was essential to “protect Montanans’ private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party” (TikTok is owned by the Chinese technology company ByteDance).
A national ban of TikTok has been threatened by both the Trump and Biden administrations, both of which have pressured ByteDance to divest from the app.
TikTok has said that China’s government does not have access to U.S. user data, but that claim has been called into question by allegations from a former ByteDance executive.
Read more on thefader.com