Top court signals it's likely to uphold TikTok ban in US

US Supreme Court justices signaled on Friday they are likely to uphold a law that would ban the popular social media platform TikTok in the US if it isn't sold by its Chinese parent company by January 19.

- Agencies

WASHINGTON:

Hearing arguments in a momentous clash of free speech and national security concerns, the justices seemed persuaded by arguments that the national security threat posed by the company's connections to China override concerns about restricting the speech, either of TikTok or its 170 million users in the United States.

Early in arguments that lasted more than two and a half hours, Chief Justice John Roberts identified as the "main concern" in the case TikTok's ownership by China-based ByteDance and the parent company's requirement to cooperate with the Chinese government's intelligence operations.