Two influential US lawmakers, including Indian-American Raja Krishnamoorthi, have asked Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores, ahead of a possible ban on the video-sharing platform next month.
A bill signed into law by President Joe Biden in April requires China-based ByteDance, owner of TikTok, to divest from it by Jan. 19 or face a U.S. ban.
Ahead of the January 19 deadline, John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi wrote a letter on Friday to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and TikTok CEO Shou Chew.
The lawmakers asked Cook and Pichai to prepare to remove TikTok from their Play Stores by January 19. In their letter to TikTok's CEO, they urged Chew to “immediately execute a qualified divestiture.”
All three letters come after the DC Circuit Court's 3-0 opinion, which upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.
In the letters to Cook and Pichai, the lawmakers said: “Today we sent a letter to TikTok emphasizing that Congress has given the company ample time – 233 days and counting – to take the necessary steps to comply with the law to comply and pursue an action. divestment that protects U.S. national security.”
“As you know, without a qualified divestiture, the law makes it unlawful to provide services to distribute, maintain, or update such foreign adversary-controlled applications (including the source code of such application) through a marketplace (including a online mobile application store) that allows users within the land or maritime borders of the United States to access, maintain, or update such application.
“Under U.S. law, (Apple and Google) must take necessary steps to ensure full compliance with this requirement by January 19, 2025,” they wrote.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)