A group of five TikTok creators sue to overturn Montana's law that is set to ban the app starting January 1, 2024, citing the First Amendment and more
A spokeswoman for the state attorney general said that his office had “expected a legal challenge” and was “fully prepared to defend the law.”
Context & Ripple Effects
Montana lawmakers had approved a first-of-its-kind state TikTok ban that also targeted app-store distribution, setting a January 1, 2024 effective date. The creators' case adds individual speakers to the legal fight, rather than leaving TikTok as the law's sole visible opponent.
The dispute centers on whether a state can restrict access to a communications platform while creators argue that the measure burdens their First Amendment interests. TikTok subsequently filed its own First Amendment challenge to the Montana law, broadening the litigation against the ban.
First-order effects
- Five creators gain a direct route to seek an injunction against Montana's ban, putting their ability to publish to and earn from TikTok at issue in court.
- Montana must defend the law not only against TikTok but also against users whose speech claims focus on the platform's practical role as a publishing outlet.
Second-order effects
- The creator suit makes the ban harder to frame solely as a dispute with a foreign-owned platform: app stores and other distribution intermediaries face a legal fight involving users' access to speech.
- A favorable ruling for the creators could reinforce TikTok's parallel challenge; conversely, Montana's defense will test whether its asserted interests can justify a state-level restriction affecting speakers and audiences.
Third-order effects
- The case is an early test of whether platform restrictions can survive when creators, not just companies, claim constitutional injury; the answer could shape how future state-level platform measures are litigated.
- If creators repeatedly become plaintiffs in platform-access cases, policy debates over app restrictions may increasingly weigh the economic and expressive dependence of small online businesses alongside national-security and consumer-protection arguments.
The trend: Platform governance disputes are expanding from fights between governments and tech companies into constitutional contests involving the creators whose livelihoods and audiences depend on major apps.