TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew attends President-elect Trump's inauguration on Monday despite the Chinese-owned company's last-ditch efforts to avoid a U.S. ban I plan to.
At the inauguration, Mr. Chu will be joined by Elon Musk, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's Tim Cook and Amazon's Jeff Bezos, people familiar with the matter told The Post. He plans to sit alongside tech giants such as:
The head of TikTok visited President Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida last month as part of an effort to circumvent the ban.
A representative for TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment. of First reported by the New York Times About Chu's plan.
TikTok reportedly plans to shut down the app permanently on Sunday, when a Congress-imposed deadline for Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its stake expires. Users will be redirected to a website with details of the ban.
Trump, who has been a vocal critic of TikTok and initially led efforts to block the app, recently said he opposes a ban.
The president-elect is considering options for “saving” the app, including the possibility of enacting an executive order upon taking office that would block enforcement of the law for 60 to 90 days. The Washington Post reported. It is not immediately clear whether he has legal grounds to do so.
The Supreme Court could intervene on TikTok's behalf, but so far it has signaled support for the law. In oral arguments last week, all nine justices said the national security concerns outlined by federal authorities outweighed the risks to free speech.
Lawmakers and the Justice Department say TikTok is a serious national security threat that relies on directives from the Chinese Communist Party to covertly manipulate content through recommendation algorithms and collect large amounts of data, including location tracking. They claim it is dangerous.
TikTok denies wrongdoing and claims the law violates the First Amendment.
In a memo to employees on Tuesday, TikTok's leadership reassured U.S. employees that they would continue working even if there was a nationwide ban.
“As a U.S. employee, I want to emphasize that even if this situation is not resolved by the January 19 deadline, our offices will remain open,” the memo said. According to The Verge.
“This bill is not written in a way that impacts the entity where you are employed, but only the user experience in the United States,” the memo added. .
TikTok's plan to shut down its app completely goes beyond divestment laws that require app store operators like Google and Apple to halt new downloads.
Otherwise, the app can remain usable for a while, but gradually become less functional as developers are unable to implement updates.
As The Post reported, despised “TikTok refugees” are flocking to a China-based alternative app called Red Note, which experts warn poses even greater risks to U.S. users.
The app's Chinese name, “Xiaohongshu,” means “little red book,” a reference to the infamous propaganda pamphlet filled with quotes from Communist China's founder Mao Zedong.
