Apple, Google Asked to Remove TikTok from US Stores

Several US lawmakers have called on Alphabet, the parent company of Google, and Apple to prepare to remove TikTok from their US app stores by January 19, in a letter to the companies’ CEOs on Friday.

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

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 if the ban goes into effect on Jan. 19, it will not directly prevent continued use of TikTok by Apple and Google users who have previously downloaded the app. However, the department said the restrictions on support will gradually make the app unusable.

Meanwhile, TikTok said Thursday that without a court order, the law would mean the app would disappear from app stores by Jan. 19, making it unavailable to the half of the country that has not yet used it, and warned that ending support would “cripple the platform in the United States and render it completely unusable.”

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

Pressure on ByteDance

Republican Senator Josh Hawley said he hoped ByteDance would sell TikTok, saying the law left no room for slack. “The text is clear as it is,” he said. “The main issue is that the app is under Chinese oversight, and Beijing’s oversight is the crux of the matter.”