The court’s justices appeared sceptical of arguments by a lawyer for TikTok.

Supreme Court appears to be inclined to force TikTok to shut down on January 19 unless sold by ByteDance.

The Supreme Court seems likely to uphold a law that would ban TikTok in the United States beginning Jan. 19 unless the popular social media program is sold by its China-based parent company.

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.

The Supreme Court seems likely to uphold a law that would ban TikTok in the United States beginning Jan. 19 unless the popular social media program is sold by its China-based parent company.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court seemed inclined Friday to uphold a law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. One of the most popular social media apps in the country may disappear next week. The court heard oral arguments Friday over the new law that requires TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to either sell TikTok or shut it down in the U.S by Jan. 19. The law passed last year with broad bipartisan support and was signed by President Biden. TikTok and a group of its users challenged the law, saying it violates their First Amendment rights. Congress said the law was necessary because ByteDance is controlled by the Chinese government, and that its ability to harvest vast amounts of personal information from American users is therefore a national security threat. Most of the justices homed in Friday on one central point: The law would allow TikTok to keep operating if it used an algorithm other than ByteDance's. And ByteDance, as a Chinese company, doesn't have First Amendment rights. "The law doesn't say TikTok has…