Shortly after Biden signed a bill banning TikTok in April, the company and a consortium of its users retaliated with a lawsuit, accusing the federal government of violating their First Amendment rights. In December last year, the federal appeals court upheld the original judgment of the ban law, leaving TikTok with only one legal way to save itself: appeal to the Supreme Court.

Many of the same arguments were made during Friday's hearing. Justice Brett Kavanaugh called the government's data security case "strong." Justices Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch cast doubt on the government's assertion that the app may be conducting a "covert" Chinese manipulation operation, arguing that TikTok's algorithm differs from that of other social media companies The algorithm is equally opaque.

"We all know now that China is behind this," Kagan said.

Fisher, who represents the creators involved in the case, argued that the judge did not have to answer security-related questions and that broader data privacy legislation could better address the issue.

“If Congress otherwise regulates data security with data brokers in this law, that is perfectly permissible,” Fisher told the court. "But the issue before you today is smaller in scope. The question is, is this law before you sustainable on security grounds? The answer is no," Fisher told the court.

The judge expressed doubts about whether the law actually restricted TikTok's free speech, given the option to divest. "TikTok can continue to run its own algorithm in its own way as long as it is not affiliated with ByteDance," Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said.

If the ban takes effect, Apple and Google will be required to remove TikTok from their U.S. app stores, preventing any new downloads in the country. Internet hosting and data storage providers will also be banned from providing services to the company. Users who have already downloaded TikTok on their devices will still have access, at least for a short time after the ban takes effect. Once removed from the app store, users will be unable to download updates for TikTok, and over time, the app may become more buggy and difficult to use. Lawyers for TikTok told the judge that the app will be shut down after January 19.

Blake Reid, a technology law professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, said the judge appeared to be targeting TikTok's corporate structure, leaving the app's lawyers with little time to argue the merits of the data security argument. "I'm not sure Tiktok is going to lose this argument, but because they spent so much time, they didn't get a chance to argue on national security and privacy and security issues, which I think is the weakest part of the government's case."

Alan Rozenshtein, a law professor and former national security adviser to the Justice Department, said the justices seemed more sympathetic to the administration's security concerns. “It’s very possible that Tiktok gets some votes,” Rozenshtein said. “I think the most likely three justices are Sotomayor, Gorsuch, and maybe Kagan, but I have a hard time seeing TikTok getting five votes, which is what it would need to overturn this law. "

At a news conference after Friday's hearing, Francisco said the arguments went "very well" and that the judge "questioned both sides strongly."

It's unclear when the court will rule, but Rosenstein and Reed are confident it will come soon. Francisco, a lawyer for TikTok, suggested that a judge could issue a stay or injunction to prevent the ban from taking effect as scheduled, but gave no signal whether they would consider it.

Trump also pleaded with the U.S. Supreme Court in an amicus brief filed last month to block the ban from taking effect, pledging to find a "political" solution to save TikTok once he returns to power. "President Trump alone has the impeccable transaction expertise, electoral authority, and ability to negotiate a settlement to save the platform," Trump's attorney D. John Sauer wrote in the filing. , and political will to address national security concerns.” The court has not yet responded to the brief.

If a judge upholds the ban, a deal with Trump could be TikTok's last chance to survive.