US lawmakers have recently instructed Google's parent company, Alphabet, and Apple to prepare for the removal of TikTok from their app stores by January 19. 

This directive, issued by Representative John Moolenaar, a Republican and chair of the US House of Representatives committee on China, along with the committee's top Democrat, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, follows a recent federal appeals court ruling. In the ruling last week, the court upheld a law mandating that ByteDance, the China-based parent company of TikTok, divest its US operations or face a potential ban, according to a recent report by Reuters.

Moolenaar and Krishnamoorthi also called on TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to proceed with a divestiture to prevent the app from being prohibited in the United States, where it is used by 170 million people, as per the report.

The lawmakers wrote, "Congress has acted decisively to defend the national security of the United States and protect TikTok's American users from the Chinese Communist Party. We urge TikTok to immediately execute a qualified divestiture."

Apple, Alphabet, and TikTok have not yet responded to these directives. On Monday, ByteDance and TikTok submitted an emergency request to the U.S. Supreme Court to temporarily block the law while it is reviewed.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) indicated that even if the ban takes effect on January 19, it would not immediately prevent Apple and Google users from continuing to use TikTok. However, restrictions on providing support services would eventually render the app unusable in the United States.

TikTok, in a statement on Thursday, expressed that without a court order, the law would result in TikTok's removal from app stores, making it inaccessible to half of the US population that has not yet downloaded the app. The company also stated that ending support services would "cripple the platform in the United States and make it totally unusable."

ByteDance and TikTok further noted that President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to stop a ban on the app.