Apple and Google must prepare to remove TikTok from app stores by January 19, lawmakers warn

Reuters
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Google parent Alphabet and Apple must be prepared to remove TikTok from their US app stores on January 19, two US lawmakers said in a letter to the companies’ CEOs on Friday.

The bipartisan letter came from two chairs of the U.S. House of Representatives China Committee: Republican Rep. John Moolenaar, who serves as committee chairman, and the group’s top Democratic official, Raja Krishnamoorthi.

Last week, a US federal appeals court upheld a law requiring China-based ByteDance to divest TikTok in the United States or face a ban. The app is used by 170 million Americans.

Separately, Moolenaar and Krishnamoorthi also called on TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to sell the app: “Congress has acted decisively to defend the national security of the United States and TikTok’s American users from the Chinese Communist Party to protect,” the lawmakers wrote. “We urge TikTok to immediately pursue a qualified divestiture.”

Apple, Alphabet and TikTok did not immediately comment. On Monday, ByteDance and TikTok filed an emergency motion to temporarily block the law pending review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Justice Department said Wednesday that when the ban takes effect on Jan. 19, it would not directly prohibit Apple or Google users who have already downloaded TikTok “from continuing to use TikTok.” However, it was acknowledged that the bans on providing support “will ultimately result in the application becoming unviable”.

In response, TikTok said Thursday that, barring a court order, the app will by law disappear from mobile app stores on Jan. 19 and “will not be available to the half of the country that does not already use the app.” “. It warned that ceasing support services “would cripple the platform and render it completely unusable” in the United States.

ByteDance and TikTok noted that President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to prevent a ban on TikTok.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley hopes ByteDance will sell TikTok because the law leaves no room for maneuver, he said in an interview.

“The law is what the law is,” Hawley said. “The main problem is that it is subject to Chinese supervision, Beijing supervision – that is the problem.”