The US Supreme Court is preparing to uphold a law banning TikTok in the country

Hearings in the US Supreme Court on the fate of the short video platform TikTok continued on Friday, January 10, for approximately two and a half hours. During this time, lawyers for the platform, representatives of the US government and content creators on TikTok spoke out.

The Supreme Court appears ready to uphold a law banning TikTok in the country on national security grounds if the Chinese parent company does not sell the platform by January 19, the BBC reports.

In April 2024, the US Congress passed a law obliging the Chinese owner of TikTok, ByteDance, to sell the platform to an American company or face a ban on the social network in the US from January 19, 2025. The company said it would not sell the platform.

U.S. officials say that as a Chinese company, TikTok potentially gives Beijing the ability to collect data on Americans and influence public opinion.

Last December, a three-judge U.S. appeals court upheld the law, saying the measure was justified as “part of a broader effort to counter a credible national security threat” posed by Beijing.

The decision from the highest US court is expected to be made within the next few days.

At a Supreme Court hearing on Friday, lawyers representing TikTok and content creators said banning the platform would be a violation of free speech for TikTok’s more than 170 million U.S. users.

The US government reiterated that without a sale, TikTok could be used by China as a tool for espionage and political manipulation. Justice Department lawyer Elizabeth B. Prelogar reminded the court that Beijing “could use TikTok at any time as a weapon to harm the United States.”

TikTok has repeatedly denied that the Chinese Communist Party is using the company to spread its influence and stated that the US law violates users’ rights to freedom of speech in accordance with the First Amendment to the American Constitution.