Apple and Google must prepare to remove TikTok from app stores by Jan. 19, lawmakers warn
CNNReuters — Google-parent Alphabet and Apple must be ready to remove TikTok from their U.S. app stores on January 19, two US lawmakers said in a letter to the companies’ CEOs Friday. Separately, Moolenaar and Krishnamoorthi also urged TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to sell the app: “Congress has acted decisively to defend the national security of the United States and protect TikTok’s American users from the Chinese Communist Party,” the lawmakers wrote. What happens next The Department of Justice said on Wednesday if the ban takes effect on Jan. 19, it would “not directly prohibit the continued use of TikTok” by Apple or Google users who have already downloaded TikTok. But it conceded the prohibitions on providing support “will eventually be to render the application unworkable.” In response, TikTok said Thursday that—absent a court order—the law means the app will disappear from mobile app stores on Jan. 19 and “be unavailable to the half of the country that does not already use the app.” It warned ending support services will “cripple the platform in the United States and make it totally unusable.” ByteDance and TikTok noted President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to prevent a ban on TikTok.