Aug 15 (Reuters) - TikTok told a federal appeals court

on Thursday that the U.S. Department of Justice has misstated

the social media app's ties to China, urging the court to

overturn a law requiring China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok's

U.S. assets or face a ban.

TikTok, which has sued to overturn the law, said the Justice

Department has made factual errors in the case. The department's

lawyers said last month that the app poses a national security

risk by allowing the Chinese government to collect the data of

Americans and covertly manipulate what content they see.

TikTok said on Thursday it is undisputed that the app's

content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the

U.S. on cloud servers operated by Oracle and that

content moderation decisions that affect U.S. users are made in

the U.S.

Signed by President Joe Biden on April 24, the law gives

ByteDance until Jan. 19 to sell TikTok or face a ban. The White

House says it wants to see Chinese-based ownership ended on

national security grounds, but not a ban on TikTok.

The appeals court will hold oral arguments on the legal

challenge on Sept. 16, putting the issue of TikTok's fate into

the final weeks of the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has joined

TikTok and said in June he would never support a TikTok ban.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential

candidate, joined TikTok in July and leaned in to social media

as part of her campaign strategy.

TikTok argued on Thursday that the law would strip the

company of its free-speech rights, arguing against the Justice

Department's claim that the short video app's content curation

decisions are "the speech of a foreigner" and not protected by

the U.S. Constitution.

"By the government's logic, a U.S. newspaper that

republishes the content of a foreign publication - Reuters, for

example - would lack constitutional protection," the company

said.

The law prohibits app stores like Apple ( AAPL ), and

Alphabet's Google, from offering TikTok and bars

internet hosting services from supporting TikTok unless it is

divested by ByteDance.

Driven by worries among U.S. lawmakers that China could

access data on Americans or spy on them with the app, Congress

overwhelmingly passed the measure just weeks after it was

introduced.