TikTok has asked a court for an emergency injunction to prevent it becoming unavilable in the US next month.

The US government passed a law demanding the app’s sale or ban because of what it says are its links to the Chinese state – links TikTok and its parent corporation ByteDance deny.

The social media corporation lost its appeal against the law in a selection handed down on Friday – and said afterwards it would appeal to the Supreme Court.

TikTok and ByteDance have now submitted a legal request to temporarily block the law to provide the Supreme Court more period to consider the matter.

The Department of fairness (DOJ) has called for the request to be dismissed, saying its underlying arguments have already been “definitively rejected.”

TikTok and ByteDance declare an injunction is also justified because Donald Trump is about to replace Joe Biden as president.

Trump has previously indicated he would overturn the law.

“The community profit favours providing sufficient period for the Supreme Court to conduct an orderly review procedure, and for the incoming Administration to assess this exceptionally significant case,” ByteDance and TikTok said in their emergency legal filing.

They added that even a temporary ban from early 2025 would have “devastating effects” on its operations.

It would be “inflicting irreparable injury by silencing Petitioners and the 170 million Americans who use the platform each month,” the filing added.

The corporation also said that even a temporary ban could factor a setback of income, as well as a setback of users and creators who make content for the platform.

On Friday, judges rejected the concept that the law was unconstitutional – saying it was the outcome of “extensive, bipartisan action” by lawmakers.

They further concluded the law was “carefully crafted to deal only with control by a foreign adversary, and it was part of a broader attempt to counter a well-substantiated national safety threat posed by the PRC (People’s Republic of China).”

According to the wording of the law, given President Joe Biden’s stamp of approval as part of a broader foreign aid package in April, TikTok would stop being made available to US citizens unless sold by its parent corporation ByteDance within nine months.

The deadline would view TikTok effectively banned in the US from 19 January 2025.

In Monday’s request for an emergency injunction, TikTok’s lawyers argued the law would “inflict extreme and irreparable damage” on the corporation – adding it would do so “on the eve of a presidential inauguration”.

President-elect Donald Trump will receive office as the country’s 47th president on 20 January.

He has previously claimed he would “save TikTok” from a ban.

Ahead of the run-up to the November election, Trump said the law would advantage Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.

But experts have warned that while his promises may propose a lifeline for the corporation’s US upcoming, they are no guarantee of the action he will receive once in office.

DOJ officials said in their note also filed on Monday that the appeals court should decline the injunction request.

“The Court is familiar with the relevant facts and law and has definitively rejected petitioners’ constitutional claims in a thorough selection that recognizes the critical national-safety interests underlying the Act,” they debate.