TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will attend President-elect Trump’s inauguration subsequent week, in the future after a possible ban of the video sharing platform might take impact within the U.S., in keeping with a supply aware of the plans.
Chew joins a rising listing of expertise executives anticipated to attend the inauguration as they search to court docket Trump as he heads again to the Oval Workplace. Trump ally and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos are among the many tech leaders reportedly anticipated on the occasion Monday.
The inauguration will happen in the future after a ban on TikTok might take impact on Sunday if the platform’s Chinese language father or mother firm ByteDance doesn’t promote the app or the Supreme Court docket stops the divest-or-ban regulation from being applied.
The ban, which handed Congress with a large bipartisan majority and was signed by President Biden final April, gave TikTok till Jan. 19 to both divest from ByteDance, or face a ban within the U.S.
TikTok has not publicly introduced what customers might anticipate on Sunday ought to the ban go into impact, although a report from The Info on Tuesday claimed the corporate intends to right away shut off its app for U.S. customers if the ban goes by.
The Supreme Court docket took up TikTok’s problem to the regulation on an expedited timeline and heard oral arguments final week. The justices signaled sympathy with the federal government’s nationwide safety issues about ByteDance however have but to challenge an opinion on the matter.
Trump, for his half, has provided reward for the platform and his incoming nationwide safety adviser, Mike Waltz, stated Wednesday the president-elect intends to take motion to protect TikTok as soon as again in workplace.
“TikTok itself is a fantastic platform,” Waltz instructed Fox Information. “I wish I could have it on my phone. The algorithm is amazing. We’re going to find a way to preserve it but protect people’s data. And that’s the deal that will be in front of us.”
Waltz appeared on Fox Information’s “Special Report” with Bret Baier shortly after The Washington Put up reported Trump was contemplating completely different choices to avoid wasting TikTok within the face of a looming ban, together with by way of an govt order.
Chew met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Seaside, Fla. final month
TikTok didn’t instantly reply to The Hill’s request for remark.
