Apple, Google instructed by House committee to prepare to dump TikTok [Video]

House Committee members are urging the top executives of Apple and Google to be prepared to comply with a law that could result in TikTok facing an effective ban in the U.S. next month

Letters were sent on Friday to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai from Reps. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, reminding them of their responsibilities as app store operators.

The lawmakers were referring to last week’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to uphold a law that requires China’s ByteDance to divest TikTok by Jan. 19. If ByteDance fails to sell TikTok by that date, Apple and Google will be required by law to ensure that their platforms no longer support the TikTok app in the U.S., the lawmakers wrote.

“As you know, without a qualified divestiture, the Act makes it unlawful to ‘[p]rovid[e] services to distribute, maintain, or …