It looks like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk won’t be the only tech CEOs attending President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday. According to The New York Times, Shou Chew, the CEO of TikTok, will also attend.
This comes as the Supreme Court continues to debate the fate of Chew’s app in the U.S., which could result in 170 million people losing access to it. If the court upholds the ban, as other courts have done, it will go into effect on Sunday, Jan. 19.
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It’s unclear how that ban will look, but we know that while your phone might not self-combust the second you open TikTok, it won’t work as you’re used to it. App stores like Apple and Google and internet hosting companies will be penalized by the government if they distribute or update the app, and anonymous sources at TikTok told Reuters that U.S. users would be faced with a pop-up message that will take them to a website with information about the ban starting on Sunday, unless the Supreme Court steps in.
The Times reported that the invitation to the executive to attend the inauguration came from the Trump Vance Inaugural Committee. This represents a stark reversal in Trump’s approach to TikTok. In 2020, Trump attempted to ban the app through an executive order, which didn’t stick. Now, he appears to be supportive of the app. He met with TikTok executives in December at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, and during his campaign, he announced, “I’m gonna save TikTok.”