The future of TikTok in the United States appears increasingly uncertain. Two influential members of the US Congress recently urged Apple and Google to prepare to remove the app from their app stores by January 19, 2025. The request follows a court ruling upholding a law that requires ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, to sell its American activities under penalty of ban.
An ultimatum for ByteDance
The law in question, signed by President Biden last April, gives ByteDance until January 19 to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese entity. If this transfer does not take place by then, the application will be prohibited on American territory. Lawmakers John Moolenaar and Raja Krishnamoorthi reminded Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai, CEOs of Apple and Alphabet respectively, of their legal obligations:
As you know, without a qualified assignment, the law makes it illegal to provide services to distribute, maintain, or update any such application controlled by a foreign adversary (including any source code for such application) by means of a marketplace (including an online mobile application store) through which users located within the land or sea boundaries of the United States can access, maintain, or update such application.
Considerable stakes
TikTok, which has about 170 million users in the United States, says a ban would have significant economic consequences. According to their estimates, small businesses using the platform could lose more than $1 billion in revenue in just one month. The company attempted to challenge the constitutionality of the law, arguing that it violates the First Amendment, but that argument was rejected by the federal appeals court.
Although President-elect Donald Trump has promised to “save” TikTok, the situation remains unclear. Trump will take office on January 20, one day after the ban potentially takes effect. ByteDance and TikTok filed for an emergency injunction to delay enforcement of the law, hoping to have time to take the case to the Supreme Court and let the US president lift the ban.
For the Apple ecosystem, this situation raises important questions about the role of App Stores in regulating applications and the potential impact on developers and users. If the ban is enforced, it could set a precedent for other foreign-originated apps in the future.
