Would TikTok have become a powerhouse without Musical.ly?

As arcane as that question might appear, it could become the paramount issue in court if the Biden administration tries to force TikTok’s parent ByteDance to sell the app. That’s because ByteDance’s 2017 purchase of Musical.ly, a rival to the then-young TikTok, is what triggered the national security review that could give the government legal grounds to force a sale.

And while lawyers agree that the interagency government taskforce leading the review—known as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States—has the power to unwind the Musical.ly acquisition, that’s not necessarily the same as forcing the sale of TikTok.