TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is planning to attend President-elect Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Monday – even as the China-owned company makes a last-ditch effort to avoid a US ban.
Chew is expected to sit alongside tech titans such as Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos during the inauguration, a source familiar with the situation told The Post.
The TikTok boss also visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida last month as part of his bid to avert a ban.
Representatives for TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The New York Times was first to report on Chew’s plans.
TikTok is reportedly planning to shut down the app entirely on Sunday, when a Congressional-imposed deadline for Chinese parent ByteDance to divest its stake passes. Users will be redirected to a website with details on the ban.
Trump – once a vocal critic of TikTok who initially led efforts to block the app – has recently said he is opposed to a ban.
The president-elect is weighing options to “save” the app, including potentially implementing an executive order upon taking office that would prevent enforcement of the law for 60 to 90 days, the Washington Post reported. It isn’t currently clear if he would have the legal basis to do so.
The Supreme Court also could intervene on TikTok’s behalf, but so far has signaled support for the law. During oral arguments last week, all nine justices said the national security concerns outlined by the feds outweigh any risk to free speech.
Members of Congress and the Justice Department allege that TikTok is a major national security threat that is beholden to the Chinese Communist Party’s directives, capable of secretly manipulating content via its recommendation algorithm and conducting mass data collection such as location-tracking, among other risks.
TikTok has denied wrongdoing and claims the law violates the First Amendment.
In a memo to staffers on Tuesday, TikTok’s leadership reassured US employees that they would keep their jobs even if there is a national ban.
“I want to reinforce that as employees in the US, your employment, pay, and benefits are secure, and our offices will remain open, even if this situation hasn’t been resolved before the January 19 deadline,” the memo said, according to The Verge.
“The bill is not written in a way that impacts the entities through which you are employed, only the US user experience,” the memo added.
TikTok’s plan to shut down the app entirely goes beyond the scope of the divestment law – which requires app store operators like Google and Apple to halt new downloads.
The app would have otherwise remained usable for some time, though it would gradually degrade because developers would be unable to implement updates.
As The Post reported, scorned “TikTok refugees” have flocked to a China-based alternative app called RedNote, which experts warn poses even greater risks to American users.
The app’s name in China, Xiaohongshu, translates to “little red book” – a reference to the infamous propaganda booklets full of quotes by Communist China’s founder Mao Zedong.
