TikTok faced significant challenges during its two-hour appeal against a nationwide ban before federal judges, with discussions centering on the platform's foreign ownership and constitutional rights under US law.

Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit highlighted that while restrictions on US-based companies would raise First Amendment concerns, this case specifically involves legislation targeting foreign-owned platforms from adversary nations.

Key points from the hearing:

• The US government's attorney, Daniel Tenny, emphasized that TikTok's code is developed in China
• TikTok's legal team countered that only some code originates from China, with significant content curation decisions made in the US
• The legislation specifically targets companies linked to designated adversary nations, with China being one of them
• The law set a January 19 deadline for TikTok to comply

The court is expected to rule before the January deadline. The legislation, which passed through Congress rapidly this spring, addresses concerns about TikTok's Chinese connections and potential access to American users' data by the Chinese government.

The case's outcome remains uncertain, with the judges struggling to find historical precedents and relying heavily on analogies about propaganda and hypothetical scenarios. Recent Supreme Court decisions regarding online speech have also factored into the court's considerations.

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