In March, the U.S. Congress passed a law that targets TikTok, the popular video-sharing app owned by Chinese company ByteDance. The legislation mandates that ByteDance must divest its U.S. operations by January 19, 2025. Failure to comply with this deadline will lead to a ban on TikTok in the United States. As the date draws near, U.S. lawmakers have escalated their efforts, urging Apple and Google to prepare to remove TikTok from their respective app stores by the deadline.
On Friday, John Moolenaar, Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on China, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, the committee’s leading Democrat, issued a joint statement. They highlighted the national security risks TikTok poses and stressed the need to protect American users. They confirmed that the company must sell its U.S. operations to avoid these risks and safeguard user security. In addition, they warned both Apple and Google to be ready to take action and remove TikTok from their platforms by January 19.
Neither Apple nor Google has officially commented on the directive to remove the app from their stores. However, if TikTok is taken down from the App Store and Google Play Store, users of both Android and iOS devices will no longer be able to download or update the app. As a result, TikTok would become essentially unavailable to U.S. users.
In response to the law, TikTok has already filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to halt the enforcement of this ban. The company stated that if the law is implemented, it will no longer be able to offer its services in the U.S. beyond January 19. This includes blocking new users from downloading the app and the shutdown of various technological services associated with it. Over time, this would render TikTok nonfunctional in the U.S. market.
As the deadline approaches, the fate of TikTok in the United States remains uncertain, with potential consequences for its millions of American users and the broader social media landscape.
