Apple and Google have been ordered by the House of Representatives committee to prepare to abolish TikTok

House committee members are calling on top managers Apple And Google to be prepared to comply with a law that could result in TikTok being effectively banned in the US next month

Letters were sent to on Friday Apple CEO Tim Cook and alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Reps. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., of the House Special Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, reminded them of their responsibilities as app store operators.

The lawmakers were referring to last week’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to uphold a law requiring Chinese company ByteDance to divest TikTok by Jan. 19. If ByteDance does not sell TikTok by that date, Apple and Google will have a legal obligation to ensure that their platforms no longer support the TikTok app in the United States, the lawmakers wrote.

“As you know, without a qualified sale, the law makes it unlawful to provide services for distributing, maintaining, or updating such an application controlled by a foreign adversary (including the source code of such application) through a “marketplace (including an online store for mobile applications) through which users may access, maintain, or update such applications within the land or maritime borders of the United States,” the lawmakers wrote in the letters.

The D.C. Court of Appeals later on Friday rejected TikTok’s request to temporarily stop the law from taking effect in January.

Lawmakers also sent a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew reviewing the court decision. They said that since President Joe Biden passed the original TikTok law in April, “Congress has given TikTok sufficient time to take the necessary steps to become compliant.”

“In fact, TikTok had 233 days to find a solution that protects U.S. national security,” the lawmakers wrote.

Although TikTok called the law unconstitutional and said it violated the First Amendment rights of its 170 million users, a three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected that argument, saying in a statement that the law was “narrowly aimed at protecting the nation’s Security is “tailored”.

TikTok warned that a month-long US ban would cause US small businesses and social media creators to lose $1.3 billion in sales and profits.

President-elect Donald Trump has not publicly stated whether he plans to enforce the effective TikTok ban when he officially takes office on January 20th.

Trump tried to push through a ban in his first term, but his rhetoric on TikTok began to change after the president-elect met in February with billionaire Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor and major investor in the Chinese social media app.

Yass’s trading company Susquehanna International Group owns a 15% stake in ByteDance, while Yass holds a 7% stake in the company, worth about $21 billion, NBC and CNBC reported in March. It was also reported this month that Yass was a partner in the company that merged with Trump’s parent company truth social.

Google declined CNBC’s request for comment. Apple did not respond to requests for comment.

A TikTok spokesperson reiterated the company’s plan to take the case to the Supreme Court, “which has been proven to protect Americans’ right to free speech.”