Prepare to remove TikTok from app stores: US lawmakers to Google, Apple

Two influential US lawmakers, including Indian-American Raja Krishnamoorthi, have asked Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores ahead of a potential ban on the video-sharing platform next month.

A bill signed by President Joe Biden into law in April requires China-based ByteDance, which owns TikTok, to divest from it by 19 January or face a US ban.

Ahead of the 19 January deadline, House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chair John Moolenaar and Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi on Friday wrote to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and TikTok CEO Shou Chew.

The lawmakers asked Cook and Pichai to prepare to remove TikTok from their play stores by 19 January. In their letter to the TikTok CEO, they urged Chew to "immediately execute a qualified divestiture".

All three letters come after the DC Circuit Court's 3-0 opinion that upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

In the letters to Cook and Pichai, the lawmakers said, "Today, we sent a letter to TikTok highlighting that Congress has provided ample time—233 days and counting—for the company to take the necessary steps to comply with the law and pursue a divestment that protects US national security."

"As you know, without a qualified divestiture, the Act makes it unlawful to provide services to distribute, maintain, or update such foreign adversary controlled application (including any source code of such application) by means of a marketplace (including an online mobile application store) through which users within the land or maritime borders of the United States may access, maintain, or update such application.

"Under US law, (Apple and Google) must take the necessary steps to ensure it can fully comply with this requirement by 19 January 2025," they wrote.