TikTok CEO confident of winning legal battle against Montana ban

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said Tuesday that the bill — seeking a ban on the video-sharing platform for the resident of Montana — is unconstitutional and he is confident that his firm will prevail in the legal battle.

Montana became the first US state to legally prohibit the ByteDance-owned video platform for its dwellers as Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed a law saying "he wants to protect the state's residents' private information from being compromised referring to the Chinese government as a threat."

The CEO said that the Chinese-owned social media app has filed a legal suit against the ban which would be enforced in January next year.

The federal government and over half of the US states have banned TikTok on government official devices. Biden’s administration even threatened it with a complete ban if its parent company refused to sell its shares.

Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are also among the countries that banned TikTok on federal government devices, citing national security concerns.

The company denies all the allegations regarding data breaches saying "the company would not do so if asked."

Shou Zi Chew told the Qatar Economic Forum:  "We believe that the Montana bill that was recently passed is simply unconstitutional."

"We very recently filed a lawsuit, the challenge is in the courts and we are confident that we will prevail," TikTok CEO added.

'TikTok important for users'

The CEO was speaking just hours after his company filed a lawsuit in US federal court with an argument that the Montana ban is violating the constitutionally protected right to free speech.

TikTok’s lawsuit contended that "the state has enacted these extraordinary and unprecedented measures based on nothing more than unfounded speculation.”

Last week, five TikTok five content creators filed a suit of their own, urging the court to reverse the ban, arguing that it violates their rights to free speech.

According to the lawsuits, the state is trying to exercise national security power that only the federal government can exercise and is violating free speech rights in the process.

"They care because TikTok is very important to them," CEO Chew said, pointing towards the filed lawsuits.

TikTok had taken steps to protect US users’ data by storing it "on American soil by an American company and overseen by American personnel," he stated.

"We believe that we have taken steps that are above and beyond what our industry has done to protect the safety of the US individual," he said.

The CEO appeared before Congress as the legislators criticized him over TikTok’s alleged ties to China and its danger to teenagers.

TikTok has more than one billion active users with 150 million only in the US. It generated $11 billion in revenue last year.