TikTok ban: Apple, Google warned to get app stores “ready” for Jan. 19th deadline

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Friday were warned by US lawmakers to be prepared to enforce a January 19th deadline that would ban TikTok if the Chinese-owned ByteDance refuses to divest the short video app.

Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), chair of the US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and Ranking committee member Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), sent three separate letters on Friday – one to Cook, one to Pichai, and one to TikTok CEO Sho Chew – warning them of the looming deadline.

“Under US law, Google must take the necessary steps to ensure it can fully comply with this requirement by January 19th, 2025,” the letter to Google states, with identical wording in the missive sent to Apple.

Attached to each was a copy of the third letter sent to TikTok’s Chew, reminding the CEO that the company was afforded an ample 233 days and counting “to take the necessary steps to come into compliance” with the divestiture directive signed into law by President Biden in April.

"Congress has acted decisively to defend the national security of the United States and protect TikTok’s American users from the Chinese Communist Party. We urge TikTok to immediately execute a qualified divestiture,” the lawmakers wrote.

Under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, without a “qualified divesture,” it will be illegal for any app store or marketplace “to distribute, maintain, or update such foreign adversary controlled application (including any source code), to users within the United States who may “access, maintain, or update such application.” the letters continued.

Come January 19th, if the ban takes effect, the TikTok app would be rendered “unworkable" for users.

US Appeals court upholds ruling

TikTok and ByteDance had filed an emergency motion with the US Court of Appeals in DC last week, warning that the law would "shut down TikTok – one of the nation’s most popular speech platforms – for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users."

The Justice Department had argued against the delay telling the courts that "continued Chinese control of the TikTok application poses a continuing threat to national security."

Last Friday, a three-judge panel upheld the Act, which could take effect in just 37 days unless the Supreme Court reverses it.

"Today's ruling is a victory for the American people and TikTok users, and a loss for the Chinese Communist Party, which will no longer be able to exploit ByteDance's control over TikTok to undermine our sovereignty, surveil our citizens, and threaten our national security," the House Select Committee on the CCP said about the December 6th decision.

Chairman @RepMoolenaar’s statement on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit’s decision to uphold the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Applications Act to divest TikTok from Chinese Communist Party control. https://t.co/XBFN9ULJI0 pic.twitter.com/wMAjLmRnJN

undefined Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (@committeeonccp) December 6, 2024

President Joe Biden has the power to grant ByteDance a 90-day extension.

Trump, set to take office on January 20th, was an original supporter of the TikTok ban back in 2020, but has since vowed he would not allow it.