The U.S. Department of Justice has appealed to the Supreme Court to dismiss President-elect Donald Trump’s request to defer a law that mandates the sale or ban of TikTok by January 19. This law obligates ByteDance, the Chinese owner of the popular app, to divest its U.S. assets as a national security measure.

Trump’s legal brief argues for more time after assuming office on January 20 to potentially orchestrate a ‘political resolution.’ The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on January 10. The DOJ has highlighted that ByteDance has not demonstrated a likely success in court, emphasizing China’s aggressive data-collection practices on U.S. citizens as a national security threat.

Contrarily, TikTok argues under the First Amendment, seeking to block the law citing it targets its social-media content rather than its data. If not blocked, new downloads would stop post-January 19, but existing users would still access the app, albeit with degrading services. Biden may extend the deadline should ByteDance show substantive divestiture progress.

(With inputs from agencies.)