US Congress tells Apple, Google they must ban TikTok in January after court order

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - A pair of senior lawmakers penned a letter to Google and Apple Friday, informing them that they must remove TikTok from their app stores by Jan. 19.

Representatives John Moolenaar and Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Republican and Democrat on the House Select Committee on the CCP respectively, told Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai "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 U.S. national security."

"Without a qualified divestiture, the Act makes it unlawful to ‘[p]rovid[e] services to distribute, maintain, or update such foreign adversary controlled application (including any source code of such application) by means of a marketplace,'" they wrote, apparently referring to the companies' app stores.

"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," they added.

They were referencing a bill signed into law by President Joe Biden that requires TikTok to be sold by its Chinese parent company -- ByteDance -- or face a US ban. TikTok has yet to do so, and the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit unanimously upheld the law last week, saying it does not violate the First Amendment.

In a separate letter to TikTok CEO Shou Chew, Moolenaar and Krishnamoorthi urged the company to "immediately execute a qualified divestiture," noting the court's ruling, which rejected the company's claims.

"Congress has acted decisively to defend the national security of the United States and protect TikTok’s American users from the Chinese Communist Party," they wrote.