The Republican and Democratic leaders of a House select committee issued a joint statement on Friday, Dec. 13, urging TikTok to sell its app and warning Apple and Google to be prepared to remove TikTok from their app stores by Jan. 19, 2025, if the company does not comply.
Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., who serve as chairman and ranking member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, sent this message in letters to the CEOs of TikTok, Apple, and Google. These letters came in response to a federal appeals court ruling on Dec. 6, which upheld a U.S. law requiring the Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a potential ban in the U.S. The ruling affirmed that the law did not violate the First Amendment.
The law, signed by President Joe Biden in April, was enacted due to concerns that TikTok posed a national security threat. In their letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, the lawmakers referenced the Dec. 6 court decision and emphasized that TikTok had since April 24—when the law was signed— to comply. “Congress has acted decisively to defend the national security of the United States and protect TikTok’s American users from the Chinese Communist Party,” they wrote, urging TikTok to “immediately execute a qualified divestiture.”
In letters to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Moolenaar and Krishnamoorthi pointed to the court ruling and their letter to TikTok, explaining that the law makes it illegal to “distribute, maintain or update” the app. They emphasized that Apple and Google must take necessary steps to comply with the law by the Jan. 19, 2025 deadline.
The Dec. 6 ruling, issued by a three-judge panel, stated that the Chinese government has laws enabling it to access and use data held by Chinese companies. Following the ruling, TikTok filed an emergency motion on Dec. 9 requesting an injunction to prevent the ban until the U.S. Supreme Court hears its appeal.
