US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from app stores on Jan 19
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Chinese-based ByteDance has been ordered to divest TikTok in the United States or face a ban.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON - The chair and top Democrat on a US House of Representatives committee on China told the chief executive officers of Google-parent Alphabet and Apple on Dec 13 they must be ready to remove TikTok from their US app stores on Jan 19.
Last week, a US federal appeals court upheld a law requiring China-based ByteDance to divest TikTok in the United States or face a ban.
Representative John Moolenaar, a Republican and chair of the committee, and the top Democrat on the committee, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, separately urged TikTok chief executive Chew Shou Zi to sell the short-video app used by 170 million Americans.
“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.
Apple, Alphabet and TikTok did not immediately comment.
On Dec 9, ByteDance and TikTok made an emergency bid
The DOJ said on Dec 11 if the ban takes effect on Jan 19, it would “not directly prohibit the continued use of TikTok” by Apple or Google users who have already downloaded TikTok.
But it conceded the prohibitions on providing support “will eventually be to render the application unworkable.”
TikTok said in response on Dec 12 the law, absent a court order, means TikTok will disappear from mobile app stores on Jan 19 and “be unavailable to the half of the country that does not already use the app.”
It warned ending support services will “cripple the platform in the United States and make it totally unusable.”
ByteDance and TikTok noted President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to prevent a ban on TikTok.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley said in an interview he hopes ByteDance will sell TikTok because the law leaves no wiggle room.
“The statute is what the statute is,” Hawley said. “The main issue is it’s subject to Chinese oversight, Beijing oversight - that’s the problem.” REUTERS
