WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chinese-based ByteDance and its short video app TikTok on Monday asked an appeals court to temporarily block a law that would require that parent company ByteDance divest TikTok by Jan. 19 or face a ban pending a review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The companies filed the emergency motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia warning that without the order the law will take effect and will "shut down TikTok-one of the nation's most popular speech platforms-for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users on the eve of a presidential inauguration."