Prepare to remove TikTok from app stores, US tells Google & Apple

Two US lawmakers, including Indian-American Raja Krishnamoorthi, have asked Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores ahead of a potential ban on the video-sharing platform next month.

A bill signed by the President into law in April requires China-based ByteDance, which owns TikTok, to divest from it by January 19 or face a US ban.

Ahead of the deadline, House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chair John Moolenaar and Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi on Friday wrote 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 the TikTok CEO, they urged Chew to “immediately execute a qualified divestiture”.

All three letters come after the DC Circuit Court’s 3-0 opinion that upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.