Apple, Google App Stores Push Users To TikTok In Days Ahead Of Impending Ban

The country’s most prominent appplication stores, run by tech giants Apple and Google, are actively pushing users to download TikTok just days before it will be illegal for them to do so.

As of Friday morning, the Chinese-owned TikTok is listed as the number one “must-have app” on Apple’s App Store, where roughly 118 million iPhone owners in the United States get their apps. The placement remained after a ruling was handed down by the Supreme Court upholding the ban, which takes effect on Sunday and will immediately make it illegal for app store operators to allow downloads of TikTok as long as it is owned by a Chinese entity.

Screenshot of Apple’s App Store

On Google’s Play Store, TikTok is also put front and center. The first thing visible when opening it is promotion for an event taking place on TikTok after the impending ban, with a prompt to install the app. It is also the top listed “sponsored” app, indicating that Google is being paid to promote it on its homepage.

Screenshot of Google Play Store

Screenshot of Google Play Store

Neither Apple nor Google respond to a request for comment. It is unclear exactly how decisions are made about what applications are recommended.

NBC News reported this week that TikTok was using its platform to push users to Lemon8, which is owned by the same Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

“On TikTok, advertisements for Lemon8 appear to have ramped up leading up to the ban,” NBC reported. “TikTok has used traditional advertisements on its platform urging users to download it. TikTok has also sent notifications to its users suggesting they download Lemon8.”

This means that a surge of users in TikTok’s potential final days will likely boost ByteDance’s effort to maintain a foothold in the United States, a prospect that has been deemed a national security threat. While the only companies explicitly listed in the legislation are ByteDance and subsidiary TikTok, there is speculation that other ByteDance apps could also end up banned.

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the TikTok ban passed by Congress could go into effect this weekend, saying it did not violate the First Amendment.

In an unassigned opinion, the court ruled that Congress was justified in passing the ban because of concerns about the Chinese government using TikTok to harvest the private data of millions of Americans. If China-based ByteDance does not sell the social media platform, the ban will go into effect on Sunday, January 19.

“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the court wrote. “But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”

President Joe Biden has said he has no plans to enforce the ban, but top Senators have warned Apple and Google to comply with its orders.

“Penalties for companies like Apple and Google could run as high as $850 billion,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). “Not sure I’d take a politician’s word if I ran those companies.”