TikTok on Monday asked the US Supreme Court to intervene in an emergency manner to block federal legislation that would ban the popular platform in the US unless its China-based parent company ByteDance agreed to sell it .

Lawyers for the company and ByteDance urged the judges to intervene before the law's January 19 deadline. Content creators who rely on the platform for revenue and some of TikTok's more than 170 million US users filed a similar petition.

"A modest delay in implementing the Act will provide breathing room for this Court to conduct an orderly review and for the new administration to evaluate this matter, before this vital channel for Americans to communicate with their fellow citizens and the world," lawyers for the companies told the Supreme Court.

US President-elect Donald Trump, who once supported a ban but later pledged during his campaign to "save TikTok", said his administration would take a look at the situation.

"As you know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok," Trump said during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. His campaign saw the platform as a way to reach younger, less politically engaged voters.

Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, according to two people familiar with the president-elect's plans who were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press with condition of anonymity.

The companies have said a month-long shutdown would cause TikTok to lose significant advertising revenue and about a third of its daily users in the US.

The case could attract the court's interest because it pits the right to free speech against the government's stated goals of protecting national security, while also raising new questions about social media platforms.

The request first goes to Chief Justice John Roberts, who oversees emergency appeals from courts in the nation's capital. He will almost certainly ask for input from all nine judges.

The ban will come into effect on January 19

On Friday, a panel of federal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied an emergency request to block the law, a procedural decision that allowed the case to move to the Court supreme

The same panel had previously unanimously upheld the law on a First Amendment challenge claiming it violated the right to free speech.

Without a court-ordered freeze, the law would take effect on January 19, exposing app stores and internet hosting services that offer TikTok to possible fines.

He ran to the Department of Justice to enforce the law, investigating potential violations and seeking penalties. But lawyers for TikTok and ByteDance have argued that Trump's Justice Department could halt enforcement or try to mitigate the law's more serious consequences. Trump takes office a day after the law takes effect.

The Supreme Court could temporarily suspend the law so that justices can give more consideration to the First Amendment and other issues. They could also quickly schedule arguments and try to reach a decision by January 19.

Alternatively, the high court could reject the emergency appeal, which would allow the law to go into effect as planned.

With the latter prospect in mind, the companies' lawyers asked for a decision on their emergency request by January 6, 2025, because they would need time "to coordinate with their service providers to take complete the complex task of shutting down the TikTok platform only in the United States."

The case has made a relatively quick trip through the courts after bipartisan majorities in Congress approved the law and President Joe Biden signed it into law in April.