By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-16 23:06:32 | Updated at 2025-01-17 06:39:09
7 hours ago
TikTok’s CEO is expected to attend president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, according to multiple US media outlets, as some Democratic lawmakers and the incoming administration try to help the Chinese-owned app avert a ban in the US.
The TikTok CEO will have a front-row seat at the inauguration next to Trump’s family and former senior American officials, according to The New York Times.
The ceremony is scheduled a day after the deadline for ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to divest its US operations to a third non-Chinese party. If no such sale transpires by then, the ban would take effect.
The law requiring the platform to either sell or face a ban was passed by the US Congress and signed by US President Joe Biden in April, owing to concerns that the Chinese government could collect Americans’ data or manipulate content on the app.
TikTok awaits a ruling by the US Supreme Court on the ban’s constitutionality. The platform and some content creators argued that the law violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech. TikTok boasts more than 170 million users in the US.
