Apple and Google instructed by House committee to prepare to dump TikTok next month

Published

11 months ago

December 13, 2024

admin

A supporter holds up a sign that read “TikTok” during a news conference on TikTok in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on March 22, 2023.

Alex Wong | Getty Images

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 update such foreign adversary controlled application (including any source code of such application) by means of a marketplace (including an online mobile application store) through which users within the land or maritime borders of the United States may access, maintain, or update such application,'” the lawmakers wrote in the letters.

They also sent a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, reviewing the court decision. They said that since President Joe Biden passed the original TikTok law in April, “Congress has provided ample time for TikTok to take the necessary steps to come into compliance.”

“Indeed, TikTok has had 233 days and counting to pursue a solution that protects U.S. national security,” the lawmakers wrote.

Although TikTok called the law unconstitutional and said it violates the First Amendment rights of its 170 million users, a three-judge panel on the appeals court rejected that argument and said in an opinion that the law “is narrowly tailored to protect national security.”

TikTok has since filed an emergency motion for an injunction to stop the ban from taking effect until the U.S. Supreme court can hear its appeal. The company warned that one month of a U.S. ban would result in U.S. small businesses and social media creators losing $1.3 billion in sales and earnings.

President-elect Donald Trump has not publicly stated whether he plans to enforce the effective TikTok ban when he officially takes office on Jan. 20.

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

Yass’ trading firm Susquehanna International Group owns a 15% stake in ByteDance, while Yass maintains a 7% stake in the company, equating to about $21 billion, NBC and CNBC reported in March. That month it was also reported that Yass was a part owner of the business that merged with the parent company of Trump’s Truth Social.

Google declined CNBC’s request for comment.

Apple and TikTok did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

Technology

Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup’s robots could ‘fracture a human skull’

Published

6 hours ago

November 21, 2025

admin

$Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup's robots could 'fracture a human skull'$

Startup Figure AI is developing general-purpose humanoid robots.

Figure AI

Figure AI, an Nvidia-backed developer of humanoid robots, was sued by the startup’s former head of product safety who alleged that he was wrongfully terminated after warning top executives that the company’s robots “were powerful enough to fracture a human skull.”

Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer, is the plaintiff in the suit filed Friday in a federal court in the Northern District of California. Gruendel’s attorneys describe their client as a whistleblower who was fired in September, days after lodging his “most direct and documented safety complaints.”

The suit lands two months after Figure was valued at $39 billion in a funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital. That’s a 15-fold increase in valuation from early 2024, when the company raised a round from investors including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft.

In the complaint, Gruendel’s lawyers say the plaintiff warned Figure CEO Brett Adcock and Kyle Edelberg, chief engineer, about the robot’s lethal capabilities, and said one “had already carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction.”

The complaint also says Gruendel warned company leaders not to “downgrade” a “safety road map” that he had been asked to present to two prospective investors who ended up funding the company.

Gruendel worried that a “product safety plan which contributed to their decision to invest” had been “gutted” the same month Figure closed the investment round, a move that “could be interpreted as fraudulent,” the suit says.

The plaintiff’s concerns were “treated as obstacles, not obligations,” and the company cited a “vague ‘change in business direction’ as the pretext” for his termination, according to the suit.

Gruendel is seeking economic, compensatory and punitive damages and demanding a jury trial.

Figure didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did attorneys for Gruendel.

The humanoid robot market remains nascent today, with companies like Tesla and Boston Dynamics pursuing futuristic offerings, alongside Figure, while China’s Unitree Robotics is preparing for an IPO. Morgan Stanley said in a report in May that adoption is “likely to accelerate in the 2030s” and could top $5 trillion by 2050.

Read the filing here: