Mont. TikTok Ban Would Stifle Journalists’ Rights to ‘Gather the News,’ Says Amicus Motion
Journalists in Montana should be free “to exercise their right to gather the news,” including through the use of “modern tools of the trade,” like TikTok, said the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Media Law Resource…
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Center (MLRC). They seek leave to file an amicus brief in support of a preliminary injunction to bar Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R) from enforcing SB-419, the state’s TikTok ban, when the measure takes effect Jan. 1, said their motion Thursday (docket 9:23-cv-00056) in U.S. District Court for Montana in Missoula. They join previous motions for leave from the Computer & Communications Industry Association, plus the ACLU in tandem with Electronic Freedom Foundation and NetChoice together with the Chamber of Progress (see 2307270022). All the motions are unopposed, and they seek by Aug. 4 to file amicus briefs in support of the injunction. They all picked the proposed deadline because it’s two weeks before Knudsen’s consolidated brief is due. Montana’s effort to restrict access to TikTok forecloses an entire medium for “gathering and publishing the news,” said the Reporters Committee and MLRC motion. That burdens the rights of local journalists “who rely on TikTok for its unique features” and to reach an audience that couldn’t be reached nearly as well by other means, it said.