Lawmakers call on Apple, Google to prepare for potential TikTok ban

Members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party have called on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Tim Cook and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) chief Sundar Pichai to prepare to comply with a potential U.S. ban on TikTok next month.

The lawmakers, led by Reps. John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), in a letter pointed to an appeals court decision last week, which upheld a law requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent firm ByteDance (BDNCE) to divest the app by January 19.

The court said the U.S. government acted to limit a foreign adversary nation’s ability to gather data on Americans and rejected all of TikTok’s constitutional claims.

“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 by means of a marketplace (including an online mobile application store) through which users within the U.S. may access, maintain, or update such application,” the House Committee members noted.

“Under U.S. law, [Apple and Google] must take the necessary steps to ensure it can fully comply with this requirement by January 19, 2025.”

The lawmakers also urged TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to “immediately execute a qualified divestiture” as Congress provided “ample time” to comply with the law. TikTok previously said it would take the case to the Supreme Court.

To note, the January 19 deadline is a day before the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump, who signaled his support for TikTok on the campaign trail. “For all of those who want to save TikTok in America, vote for Trump,” he’d said in September.