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TikTok's appeal against a law that could see it banned in the US gets under way on Monday in a case that could have far-reaching repercussions.

The law was passed in April, prompted by worries the social media platform users' data could be open to exploitation by China's government. 

TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, has been given nine months to sell the app or it will be blocked in the US.

TikTok and ByteDance are fighting the move and have denied any links to the Chinese government, calling the law an "extraordinary intrusion on free speech rights." 

The social media platform is estimated to have more than 170 million users in the US, and will commence its appeal on Monday before a three-judge panel in Washington D.C. 

Representatives of the company will be joined by American TikTok creators whose businesses depend on the platform. The Department of Justice (DoJ) will state its case following this.

DoJ officials also voiced concerns over TikTok being used by the Chinese government to spread propaganda in the US.

There are concerns, however, particularly from free speech rights activists, that upholding the divest-or-ban law would have massive repercussions across the globe. 

"It would allow authoritarian regimes across the globe to "cite this precedent to justify new restrictions on their own citizens’ right to access information, ideas, and media from abroad,” Xiangnong Wang, a staff attorney at Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute, told the BBC.

"We can't think of any previous instance in which such a broad restriction on First Amendment rights was found to be constitutional on the basis of evidence that wasn't disclosed,” he added.

The case is expected to run for months.