Federal judge seems to side with ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation that ban is unenforceable and unconstitutional
A federal judge appeared skeptical about Montana’s TikTok ban in a hearing on Thursday, telling representatives of the state that their argument for restrictions on the app “just confuses me”.
US district judge Donald Molloy heard arguments in a case filed by TikTok and five Montana content creators who want the court to block the state’s ban on the video-sharing app before it takes effect 1 January.
Molloy called the impending ban “paternalistic”, according to the Washington Post. After an hour, Molloy ended the hearing without ruling on the request for an injunction on the digital prohibition.
The judge’s argument is not particularly compelling. “Everybody voluntarily smokes weed. If they want to give that chemical to their brain, how is it you can protect them.”
uh I think it’s actually quite a good comparison. The only way to “protect” them is to make them the enemy, like smoking weed. Which is a terrible idea and we shouldn’t try to stop them from smoking weed in the first place.
Yes, this is like trying to ban smoking, but just for one brand of cigarette.
And yet, we do exactly that.