RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is asking the Supreme Court to uphold a law that would essentially ban TikTok if the social media app doesn’t make serious security changes soon.

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Miyares released a statement Friday saying he had filed a 40-page amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court supporting the bipartisan Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which passed this April year came into force. The letter was co-led by Montana’s attorney general and 20 other states signed it.

The law gave TikTok about nine months to cut ties with its Chinese parent company ByteDance. Otherwise, a nationwide ban would take effect on January 19th.

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The company fought back, saying the law violated its freedom of expression and the freedom of expression of its approximately 170 million users in America. According to CBS News, it also said that cutting ties with ByteDance would be nearly impossible because of the way the app was built.

But earlier this month, an appeals court in Washington rejected his request to strike down the law and postpone its effective date.

The Supreme Court will soon hear the counterarguments to the ban.

“Allowing TikTok to operate in the United States without cutting its ties with the Chinese Communist Party puts Americans at undeniable risk of having their data accessed and exploited by the Chinese Communist Party,” Miyares said in a statement . “Virginians deserve a government that is committed to protecting their privacy and security. The Supreme Court now has the chance to affirm Congress’s authority to protect Americans from foreign threats while ensuring that the First Amendment does not become a tool to defend the exploitation of foreign adversaries.”

The bill received bipartisan support.

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Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been outspoken about the security threat posed by the app but outlined what lawmakers are working toward in a virtual meeting with reporters last Thursday.

“We don’t want to get rid of TikTok, we just don’t want the ownership to be in the hands of an adversary,” Warner said. “Eighty percent of Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate agreed.”

On Friday, the same day Miyares filed the brief, President-elect Donald Trump’s team asked the Supreme Court for more time to resolve the matter through negotiations.

The move to ban TikTok has been criticized by users who say the platform has proven successful in building businesses and online communities.

“It’s really a great way to connect with even more people that we might not be able to connect with on another platform,” said Taylor Scott, the founder of RVA Community Fridges.

Scott said creating video content for the app has helped the nonprofit, which focuses on providing free food and resources to marginalized communities, grow.

“It’s crazy how many people have even come from our TikTok and are coming to our in-person meetings, they’re coming to participate in the cooking days, we’ve even received masks from people in the community who aren’t in Virginia, so.” It’s like we have our own community on TikTok,” Scott said.

Although Scott said she and other volunteers never considered themselves content creators for the app, they have been thinking about how they could expand their reach if the ban goes into effect.

“It’s a really great place to learn, and even people you might not expect to be there are using TikTok as a search engine to find out about things like helping each other, like things we do, and this is it.” “A great way for people to find resources,” Scott said. “So please reconsider your stance if you’re not ready to maintain it, because we really do have a lot of great people, resources and easy ways to connect with others on TikTok.”

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