July 26 (Reuters) - The Justice Department late on

Friday asked a U.S. appeals court to reject legal challenges to

a law requiring China-based ByteDance to divest TikTok's U.S.

assets by Jan. 19 or face a ban.

TikTok and parent company ByteDance and a group of TikTok

creators have filed suits to block the law that could ban the

app used by 170 million Americans.

The Justice Department will detail wide-ranging national

security concerns about ByteDance's ownership of TikTok.

The government is also filing a classified document with the

court that will detail additional security concerns about

ByteDance's ownership of TikTok as well as declarations from the

FBI, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and Justice

Department's National Security Division, a senior official said.

The Justice Department will argue TikTok under Chinese

ownership poses a serious national security threat to Americans

because of its access to vast personal data of Americans and

will argue China can covertly manipulate information that

Americans consume via TikTok, a Justice Department official

said.

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 department is rejecting all of the arguments raised by

TikTok, including that the law violates the First Amendment free

speech rights of Americans that use the short video app, saying

the law is aimed at addressing national security concerns, not

speech and is aimed at China's ability to exploit Tiktok to

access Americans sensitive personal information, a senior

Justice Department official said.

The government will tell the court that TikTok's efforts to

protect U.S. user data are insufficient.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will

hold oral arguments on the legal challenge on Sept. 16, putting

the fate of TikTok in the middle of the final weeks of the 2024

presidential election.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has joined

TikTok and told an interviewer in June he would never support a

TikTok ban. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running for

president, joined TikTok this week.

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, the

measure was passed overwhelmingly in the U.S. Congress just

weeks after being introduced.