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The US Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will hear TikTok’s appeal against a divest-or-ban law that will determine the video app’s fate in the US.

The ByteDance-owned app is expected to be banned for the company’s 170 million US users if it does not split from its Chinese parent under a law that will take effect on January 19, the day before the inauguration of Donald Trump as president.

The Supreme Court said it would accept the challenge and hear oral arguments on January 10 about the law, which US officials proposed because of national security concerns over the company’s Chinese roots. The opening briefs of both parties are on December 27.

TikTok asked the Supreme Court to hear its case after a US appeals court rejected its challenge to the law, as well as its subsequent request to halt the move pending further court proceedings.

The fate of TikTok in the US is now in the hands of the country’s highest court – and the app also looking for Trumpwho said he would “save” the platform in an attempt to preserve the “competition” of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, which he criticized for allegedly censoring rightwing voices.

In a sign of intensified lobbying, TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago earlier this week, two people familiar with the matter said. The president-elect has also said publicly that he has “a little bit of a hot spot” for the app, citing his overachievement with young voters in November’s election.

However, Trump did not explain the mechanisms he would use to avoid a ban on TikTok, or what changes, if any, the app would need to make to its management or ownership to satisfy any remaining concerns. concerns that he may have.

The Justice Department argued that Beijing could use the app for propaganda and espionage purposes through its Chinese parent.

TikTok considered the law, which was passed with bipartisan support in Congress, unconstitutional and argued that a spin-off would technically be “impossible” during the law. Beijing has also said it opposes a sale.

However, some potential buyers and partners are circling. Frank McCourt, an American media and sports entrepreneur, established a consortium of investors to bid for TikTok through his non-profit entity, Project Liberty, established in 2021 to advocate for a more fair internet. Its investor group has made informal commitments of more than $20bn of capital.