A group of 18 state attorneys general said on Monday they backed Montana's effort to ban Chinese-owned short video app TikTok, urging a U.S. judge to reject legal challenges ahead of the Jan. 1 effective date.

The state attorneys general led by Virginia and including Georgia, Alaska, Utah, and South Dakota said the suits from TikTok and users should be rejected "because TikTok intentionally engages in deceptive business practices which induce individuals to share sensitive personal information that can be easily accessed by the Chinese Communist Party."

TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance, filed a suit in May seeking to block the first-of-its-kind U.S. state ban on several grounds, arguing it violates the First Amendment free speech rights of the company and users.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese)