Members of a House Committee are pressing the top leaders of Apple and Google to prepare for potential enforcement of a law that could effectively ban TikTok in the United States next month.
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On Friday, letters were sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai by Representatives John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. These letters emphasized their responsibilities as operators of app stores.
The lawmakers referenced a recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., which upheld a law mandating that TikTok’s parent company, China’s ByteDance, must divest the app by January 19.
Should ByteDance fail to complete the sale by that deadline, Apple and Google will be legally obligated to remove TikTok from their U.S. app platforms, as stated by the lawmakers.
In their letters, the lawmakers cited the legal language: “As you know, 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 (including an online mobile application store) through which users within the land or maritime borders of the United States may access, maintain, or update such application.’”
TikTok's request to temporarily block the law from taking effect in January was denied by the D.C. appeals court later on Friday.
The lawmakers also addressed TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in a separate letter, summarizing the court’s decision. They stated that since President Joe Biden enacted the initial TikTok law in April, TikTok has had ample opportunity to comply. “Indeed, TikTok has had 233 days and counting to pursue a solution that protects U.S. national security,” they wrote.
Although TikTok argues that the law is unconstitutional and infringes on the First Amendment rights of its 170 million U.S. users, a three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected this claim, describing the law as “narrowly tailored to protect national security.”
TikTok warned that a one-month U.S. ban could cost U.S. small businesses and social media creators $1.3 billion in lost sales and earnings.
President-elect Donald Trump has not clarified whether he intends to enforce the TikTok ban once he takes office on January 20. While Trump previously sought a ban during his initial presidency, his stance softened following a February meeting with billionaire Jeff Yass, a major Republican donor and significant investor in ByteDance.
Yass’ trading firm, Susquehanna International Group, holds a 15% stake in ByteDance, and Yass personally has a 7% stake, valued at roughly $21 billion, according to NBC and CNBC reports from March.
That same month, Yass was also reported to have partial ownership in the business that merged with Trump’s Truth Social parent company.
Google did not comment when asked by CNBC. Apple did not respond to requests for comment.
A TikTok spokesperson reiterated the company’s intention to appeal to the Supreme Court, citing the Court’s historical precedent of protecting Americans’ free speech rights.
