TikTok has urged a federal appeals court to block a law that could soon ban the social media app in the US over national security concerns related to its Chinese parent, arguing the consequences of such a move would be “staggering” for free speech.

Under the law signed by President Joe Biden earlier this year, TikTok will be banned in the US if it does not divest from its parent ByteDance by January 19 2025 — the day before the next US president is inaugurated. It comes US officials have warned Beijing could compel the parent group to share the personal information of its 170mn American users for espionage purposes or manipulate what users see for propaganda purposes.

During a hearing before a three-judge panel in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Monday, Andrew Pincus, a partner at Mayer Brown representing TikTok, invoked first amendment free speech protections in the constitution and pushed back against the argument that the video app was controlled by China or had posed a national security threat.