TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew Spotted at Mar-a-Lago Ahead of Ban

On Monday, TikTok and its father or mother firm, China-based ByteDance, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause the upcoming Jan. 19 deadline imposed by U.S. lawmakers in April that forces the 2 firms to sever relations or face a ban.

Hours later, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Seashore, Florida, making his case to President-elect Donald Trump on the “Winter White Home,” CNN first reported.

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The outlet notes that the assembly was pre-scheduled. ByteDance stated beforehand that it won’t sell TikTok.

Earlier within the day, Trump stated at a press convention that he’s taking “a have a look at TikTok” and has a “heat spot” in his coronary heart for the app. Under the legislation handed within the Spring, the President of the U.S. can name for a “one-time extension” of the deadline.

Trump’s phrases Monday are a departure from 2020 when he tried to ban TikTok outright. A few of Trump’s high brass, together with Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio, have been the ban’s most vocal supporters.

“TikTok prolonged the Chinese language Communist Get together’s energy and affect into our personal nation, proper beneath our noses,” Rubio stated in a press launch on his website in April. “I’ve been elevating issues about TikTok since 2019, so this new regulation forcing ByteDance to divest from TikTok is a big step towards confronting Beijing’s malign affect. It is official: Communist China is on the clock.”

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TikTok argued that the deadline needs to be delayed or paused whereas it awaits a Supreme Court docket evaluation, however a federal appeals court docket denied the request final week.

In an emergency utility on Monday, TikTok’s attorneys requested the Supreme Court docket to resolve by January 6 in order that the corporate can “coordinate with their service suppliers to carry out the advanced job of shutting down the TikTok platform solely in the USA” in time for the Jan. 19 deadline.

In a court filing earlier in December, TikTok stated that if the ban occurs, creators and small companies within the U.S. may lose $1.3 billion in income and earnings in only one month.

TikTok has greater than 150 million customers within the U.S., according to the company. In Could, Chew was an honorary chair of the Met Gala at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Artwork.

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