TikTok CEO plans to attend Trump inauguration, NYT reports

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(Reuters) – The chief executive of TikTok plans to attend U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the plans.

Shou Zi Chew has been invited to sit in a position of honor on the dais, which is typically reserved for former presidents, family members and other important guests, the report said.

TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comments.

With more than 170 million American users and, according to Bernstein analysts, about $20 billion of estimated revenue in 2025, TikTok is overwhelmingly popular with young people and advertisers.

The short-video platform plans to shut U.S. operations of its social media app on Sunday, when a federal ban is set to take effect, barring a last-minute reprieve, people familiar with the matter have said.

The Washington Post reported that Trump is considering issuing an executive order to suspend enforcement of a shutdown for 60 to 90 days. The report did not say how Trump could legally do so.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court seemed inclined to uphold the law that would force a sale or ban TikTok, despite calls from Trump and lawmakers to extend the deadline. Trump has said he should have time to pursue a “political resolution” of the issue after taking office.

President Joe Biden signed a law last April requiring ByteDance to sell its U.S. assets by Jan. 19, or face a nationwide ban.

The Supreme Court is currently deciding whether to uphold the law and enforce the ban on TikTok on Sunday, or overturn or pause the law to give the court more time to decide.

(Reporting by Disha Mishra and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Shinjini Ganguli)