A House committee has ordered Apple and Google to prepare to drop TikTok

Members of the House of Representatives call senior leaders apple and Google Getting ready to comply with the law could see TikTok face an effective ban in the US next month

Letters posted on friday apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai Chinese Communist Party House Select Committee Reps. John Moolenaar, R-Mich. and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., reminded them of their responsibilities as app store operators.

Deputies referred to it last week’s decision By the US Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., the law requiring China’s ByteDance to divest from TikTok by January 19 is to be upheld. The US will no longer support the TikTok app, lawmakers wrote.

“As you know, without appropriate repeal, the Act makes it illegal to “(p)rovid(e) distribute, maintain or update any such application (including any source code of such application) operated by a foreign competitor. A marketplace (including an online mobile application store) where users can access, store, or update such software within the land or sea borders of the United States,” the lawmakers wrote in the letters.

On Friday, a D.C. appeals court denied TikTok’s request to temporarily halt the law from taking effect in January.

Lawmakers have also sent a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to review the court order. They’ve been saying that since President Joe Biden passed The original TikTok law in April said, “Congress has given TikTok ample time to take the necessary steps to comply.”

“Indeed, TikTok has 233 days and is ready to find a solution that protects US national security,” the lawmakers said.

TikTok called the law unconstitutional and said it violated the First Amendment rights of its 170 million users, but a three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected that argument, saying the law was “narrowly drafted to protect national security.”

TikTok warned A one-month US ban would cost US small businesses and social media creators $1.3 billion in lost sales and profits.

elected president Donald Trump he has not announced to the public whether he plans to do so to execute the TikTok ban effective after he officially took office on January 20.

Trump tried to push through the ban in his first administration, but his rhetoric on TikTok began to change after the president-elect. met in February billionaire Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor and major investor in a Chinese-owned social media app.

Yass’ trading company, Susquehanna International Group, owns a 15% stake in ByteDance, while Yass owns a 7% stake in the company, worth about $21 billion, NBC and CNBC reported. informed in March. It was the same month informed Yass was part of a business that merged with Trump’s parent company Truth Social.

Google declined CNBC’s request for comment. Apple did not respond to requests for comment.

A TikTok spokesperson reiterated the company’s plan to take the case to the Supreme Court, which has a “historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech.”