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,

In a battle over free speech and national security, the justices expressed skepticism about Chinese content manipulation.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

In the case currently before the Court, TikTok has sued the U.S. government on First Amendment grounds, arguing that the law impermissibly chills free speech — both that of its users and the company itself. Attorney Noel Francisco told the Court on Friday that the ban constitutes “uniquely harsh treatment” toward ByteDance and TikTok.

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...)