Not long after Biden signed the bill to ban TikTok in Aprilthe company and a consortium of its users retaliated by filing lawsuits accusing the federal government of violating their First Amendment rights. In December, a federal appeals court upheld the ban, leaving TikTok with only one legal avenue left to save itself: An appeal to the Supreme Court.

Many of these same arguments were made at Friday’s hearing. Justice Brett Kavanaugh called the government’s data security rationale “robust.” Justices Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch questioned the government’s assertion that the app could host “covert” Chinese manipulation operations, arguing that TikTok’s algorithm is just as opaque as that of other companies. social media.

“We all know that China is behind this,” Kagan said.

Fisher, who represented the creators involved in the case, argued that judges should not have to answer security-related questions that are better addressed by broader data privacy laws.

“If Congress, in this law, regulates data security in other ways with data brokers that is completely permissible,” Fisher told the court. “But the question before you now is narrower. The question is, is this law before you proceed with the security standard? And that answer should be no,” Fisher told the court.

The judges expressed some doubt as to whether the law really limits TikTok’s freedom of expression, given the option to divest. “TikTok can continue to operate its own algorithm on its own terms, as long as it doesn’t partner with ByteDance,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said.

If the ban goes into effect, Apple and Google will have to remove TikTok from the US versions of their app stores, prevent any new downloads from happening in the country. Internet hosting and data storage providers are also prohibited from offering their services to the company. Users who have TikTok already downloaded on their devices can still continue to have access, at least for a short time after the ban begins. Once removed from the app stores, users will no longer be able to download TikTok updates and the app will more buggy and difficult to use over time. TikTok’s lawyer told the judges that the app will go dark after January 19.

Blake Reid, a tech law professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said the judges seemed to focus on TikTok’s corporate structure, leaving the app’s counsel little time to argue the merits of data security argument. “I’m not sure that Tiktok will lose that argument, but because they spend so much time on it, they don’t make the arguments about the national security thing and the privacy and security thing that I think is the weakest. in the case of the government.”

The justices seem more sympathetic to the government’s security concerns, said Alan Rozenshtein, a law professor and former national security adviser at the Justice Department. “It’s very believable that Tiktok got a couple of votes,” Rozenshtein said. “I think the three most likely are Justices Sotomayor, Gorsuch, and maybe Kagan, but I have a hard time seeing TikTok getting five votes, which is what it takes to overturn this law.”

At a press conference after Friday’s hearing, Francisco said the argument was “very good” and that the judges “strongly questioned both sides.”

It’s unclear when the court will issue its decision, but Rozenshtein and Reid believe it will come soon. TikTok’s lawyer Francisco suggested that judges could issue a stay or an injunction to stop the ban from taking effect as scheduled, but gave no indication if they would consider it. .

Trump also asked the nation’s highest court to stop the ban from going into effect in an amicus brief filed last month, promising to find a “political” solution to save TikTok once he gets it. the power. “Only President Trump has the perfect deal-making skills, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing national security concerns,” the lawyer wrote. by Trump D. John Sauer on the filing. The court has yet to respond to the brief.

If the judges uphold the ban, a deal with Trump could be TikTok’s last shot at survival.