US lawmakers urge Google and Apple to remove TikTok ahead of January 19 divestiture deadline

Two prominent U.S. lawmakers, including Indian-American Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, have called on Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores ahead of a looming deadline that could lead to a nationwide ban of the video-sharing platform. The request comes as the clock ticks toward a crucial date: January 19, the deadline set by a law signed by President Joe Biden in April, which mandates that TikTok’s parent company, China-based ByteDance, divest from the app or face a ban in the United States.

On Friday, House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chair John Moolenaar and Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi sent letters to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and TikTok CEO Shou Chew. The lawmakers urged Cook and Pichai to prepare for the removal of TikTok from their respective platforms by the January 19 deadline. In their letter to Chew, they called for the "immediate execution" of a qualified divestiture of the app.

This move follows a ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court, which upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act with a 3-0 decision.

In their letters to Cook and Pichai, Moolenaar and Krishnamoorthi emphasized that Congress had given TikTok ample time—233 days and counting—to comply with the law and implement the necessary steps for divestment. "Without a qualified divestiture, the law makes it unlawful for companies like yours to provide services to distribute, maintain, or update foreign adversary-controlled applications," they wrote. "Under U.S. law, Apple and Google must ensure full compliance with these requirements by January 19, 2025."

The deadline is seen as a pivotal moment in the ongoing debate over the national security risks posed by TikTok, with lawmakers intensifying their efforts to push for its removal from US app stores.

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