RICHMOND, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares has filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals supporting Montana’s legislation to ban social media app TikTok in that state unless it divests from its Chinese parent company ByteDance. Eighteen other states have joined the brief.

Montana’s legislation is similar to federal legislation banning the app, which has received bipartisan support and passed 50-0 out of hte House Energy and Commerce Committee.

According to a release from Miyare’s office, TikTok was the second most downloaded mobile app in the world with 654 million downloads. The U.S. has the app’s widest audience with 150 million users. The release says Montana’s legislation does not aim to ban TikTok but instead seeks to protect the data and privacy of the app’s users.

“Montana has the authority and responsibility to protect its citizens from foreign threats to their data and privacy. Tiktok’s extensive connections to our country’s most dangerous adversary exposes the data of Montanans—and all Americans—to the thugs of the Chinese Communist Party. This is an unacceptable risk to consumers, and Montana is right to confront it,” said Attorney General Miyares in the release. “While Congress works on similar legislation at the federal level, Montana’s authority to protect its citizens must be preserved.”

Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah have joined Miyares brief.

Read the brief here.