• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, December 13, 2024

Lawmakers have directed Apple and Google to prepare to ban TikTok from their app stores by January 19, unless it separates from China-based parent company ByteDance before that date.

In letters sent Friday, Reps. John Moolenaar (R-Michigan) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois), leaders of the House Select Committee on Chinese Communist Party, told the tech companies that a federal appellate court recently upheld the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (H.R. 7521). That law prohibits app stores and websites from distributing TikTok unless it's divested by ByteDance, and gives ByteDance a January 19 deadline to find a buyer. The statute provides that President Joe Biden can extend that period for up to three months, but Biden hasn't yet indicated whether he will do so.

Apple and Google should “take the necessary steps” to comply with that law, the officials said in their letters to the companies.

The lawmakers also urged TikTok “to immediately execute a qualified divestiture.”

“Congress has acted decisively to defend the national security of the United States and protect TikTok’s American users from the Chinese Communist Party,” Moolenaar and Krishnamoorthi wrote Friday to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.

Earlier this year, TikTok and a group of content creators challenged the law in court, claiming that the statute violates the First Amendment by shutting down a communications platform.

On December 6, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that argument, ruling that the law's restrictions on speech were justified by national security concerns. The law, which was passed earlier this year, was largely driven by fears that the Chinese government may be able to access data about TikTok's users, and use the app to sway public opinion.

TikTok has said it plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. The company also recently asked the circuit court to temporarily block the law until the Supreme Court weighs in on the statute.

The D.C. Circuit Court hasn't yet acted on TikTok's request for an injunction.