TikTok lawyer warns that the platform would close on January 19

Noel Francisco, who was also the U.S. attorney general during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term, opened the hearing as TikTok’s legal representative and echoed Trump’s desire for the court to stop the effective ban, in order to give him time for the president-elect to find a political resolution to national security concerns about TikTok.

Separately, Francisco argued that TikTok’s For You algorithm should be protected by free speech rights, as it represents the company’s editorial discretion over the content it distributes.

When asked if the problem with the sell-or-ban law is the limited time frame for divesting from the social network, the lawyer argued that a divestment of the app would not be feasible in any time frame.

Given this fact, TikTok has continually argued that a sale is impossible because China would prevent the export of its algorithm. Francisco also stated that TikTok would be a fundamentally different service if it did not have access to content from global creators. Additionally, he argued that a new version of TikTok in the United States with a new algorithm would prohibit any type of coordination with ByteDance’s global engineering team and that a new version would have completely different content.

During the hearing, the justices peppered Francisco with questions about TikTok’s ties to China-based ByteDance, as much of the court’s investigation focused on TikTok’s ownership structure.

So far, most arguments in favor of the TikTok divestment law center on the claim that it poses a national security threat, as noted by US Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar.

Americans who use TikTok may believe that “they are talking to each other,” Prelogar said. But in reality, “the People’s Republic of China, a foreign adversary nation, is exploiting a vulnerability in the system.”

The judges pressed Prelogar on how TikTok is different from other foreign-owned outlets, such as Politico and Oxford University Press, and she pointed out that they are owned by China, “a foreign adversary that seeks any opportunity to weaken the United States,” she said. “If he has control of TikTok, it is difficult to predict exactly how he is going to use it as a tool to harm our interests.”

“What we are trying to avoid is not the specific issue, the specific points of view, but the technical ability of a foreign adversary nation to use a communications channel,” Prelogar continued.

As to whether the incoming Trump administration could extend the deadline before the law is enacted, Prelogar said the U.S. government has not yet taken a position on the matter.

“We haven’t looked at it in depth, in part because it’s just not presented here,” he said. It should be remembered that Trump will take office on January 20 and the deadline to divest is January 19.