As TikTok’s fate hangs in the balance, roughly 170 million users across the United States face the possibility of losing access to the app, which has become the focal point of a growing national security debate.

ByteDance has so far rebuffed the idea of selling TikTok. But the lawyer for the US government told the Supreme Court that a ban might be just the “jolt” needed to persuade it to consider the idea, noting that restrictions could be lifted once a deal materialises.

Now that the US Supreme Court has decided that a law banning TikTok is constitutional, the platform is set to shut down in the US on 19 January – but Trump could still save it