The Supreme Court hears TikTok's case to toss out a ban just nine days before it will take effect. The Biden administration defends the measure on national security grounds.

A U.S. federal appeals court ruled in favor of upholding a law requiring Chinese-based ByteDance to divest its popular short video app TikTok in the United States by early next year or face a ban. President-elect Donald Trump has said he will not allow TikTok,

The full scope of how the ban would impact TikTok’s user functions is still unclear, as a lawyer arguing on behalf of the app said it would go dark by Jan. 19.

Within days, TikTok could be banned from being distributed in the United States and, eventually, stop working as an app altogether if the U.S. Supreme Court does not intervene to block a bipartisan law that is set to take effect on Jan. 19.

Congress, which passed the TikTok law with bipartisan support, says China’s influence over the platform poses a national security threat. The Department of Justice has raised concerns as well, including the potential collection of personal data from the app’s millions of American users and the potential “ covert manipulation ” of its content.

The justices are expected to rule quickly in the case, which pits national security concerns about China against the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.

Most of the justices seemed unpersuaded by TikTok's arguments against the ban on the company—but that doesn’t meant TikTok is gone forever (cue Donald Trump...)

The law that could ban TikTok is coming before the Supreme Court. The justices largely hold the app’s fate in their hands as they hear the case Friday.

A majority of the Supreme Court appeared likely to uphold a controversial ban on TikTok over concerns about its ties to China, with justices lobbing pointed questions at lawyers for the social media app and a group of its content creators.

TikTok has just ten days until it faces a possible ban in the US. If the Supreme Court declines to halt the law before January 19th, and TikTok isn’t spun off from its Chinese parent company ByteDance, companies like Apple and Google will be forced to stop maintaining the app in their app stores or letting it push updates.

TikTok received a frosty reception in its fight to save the platform at the Supreme Court, which during oral arguments Friday expressed sympathy with the government’s national security concerns