TikTok says state ban is unconstitutional

TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew said Tuesday that Montana’s ban on the app was unconstitutional and he was confident the company would prevail in a lawsuit against the decision.

China’s short-form video platform sued Monday against Montana’s decision to ban the use of TikTok, citing a need to protect residents from China’s alleged intelligence-gathering.

“We believe Montana’s bill is simply unconstitutional,” Chew said at the Qatar Economic Forum, hosted by Bloomberg.

US lawmakers and state government officials have called for a nationwide ban on TikTok, used by more than 150 million people in the US, over concerns about the Chinese government’s possible influence on the platform.

“The Chinese government has never asked us for US users’ data and we would not provide it even if asked,” the executive said.

Chew said the company has worked with Oracle to keep US user data stored in the US.

“Over the past two years, we’ve built something we call internally ‘Project Texas’ which ensures that US data is stored by a US company and overseen by US personnel,” he added.

Montana will be able to impose fines of $10,000 for each violation of the social media platform and additional fines of $10,000 per day if it violates the ban. The law does not impose penalties on individual TikTok users, but it’s unclear how the state will enforce the app’s ban.

Source: Terra

Rose

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