Trump Hosts TikTok CEO At Mar-a-Lago As Its Future In The U.S. Remains Uncertain

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President-elect Donald Trump on Monday met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew after the company asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in to block a law that could potentially ban the platform nationwide next month, according to multiplenewsreports.

Chew, who was also spotted at Trump’s Florida estate in early December, has been working to secure a meeting with Trump since his election victory, according to CNN, which was the first to report the planned meeting.

The contents of their discussion remain unclear.

Trump hosted Chew shortly after TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance asked the Supreme Court to intervene to stop a federal law that would ban the platform in the U.S. unless ByteDance divested its stake in the platform by Jan. 19.

TikTok has said the potential ban would mean that small businesses on the platform would lose $1 billion in revenue, while creators would lose about $300 million in earnings in just one month unless the law is stopped from taking effect.

TikTok, which reportedly boasts a user base of 170 million Americans, asked the Supreme Court to issue a decision by Jan. 6, citing the time it would need to “perform the complex task of shutting down the TikTok platform only in the United States” in the event that their injunction was denied.

Last week, a federal appeals court rejected a request by TikTok to stop the law from getting enforced until the Supreme Court gets a chance to review it. The same court previously upheld the law signed by President Joe Biden in April, rejecting the company’s claims that it was unconstitutional.

Trump, who is set to take office on Jan. 20, has not specified what actions he could take to stop the law from taking effect.

During a press conference earlier on Monday, Trump shared his appreciation for the platform, noting it may have helped him win the election.

“We’ll take a look at TikTok,” he said. “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points and there are those that say that TikTok has something to do with that.”

Despite his claims, early exit polls showed Vice President Kamala Harris won the majority of voters under 30 years old, according to The New York Times.

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While Trump had previously tried to ban TikTok at the end of his first term in office, he has since had a change of heart and criticized the app’s potential ban during his campaign.

Apart from Chew, Trump has met with several other prominent executives in recent weeks, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. This week, the president-elect is also reportedly due to host Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for meetings at Mar-a-Lago.

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