Trump meets TikTok CEO as ban deadline approaches
US President-elect Donald Trump is meeting with TikTok’s CEO as the social media giant disputes plans to ban TikTok in the US.
Trump was due to meet Shaw Zi Chew at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Monday, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reported, citing sources familiar with the meeting.
A law passed earlier this year means TikTok will be banned unless it is sold by its Chinese parent company ByteDance before January 19.
The company has filed an emergency application with the US Supreme Court to delay the ban.
The US wants TikTok to be sold or banned due to alleged ties between ByteDance and the Chinese state, both TikTok and ByteDance have always denied this relationship.
The bill introducing the legislation states that its purpose is to “protect the national security of the United States from the threat posed by foreign adversary controlled applications.”
Trump opposed the ban – despite supporting it during his first term – partly on the grounds that it could help Facebook, which he has accused of helping him lose the 2020 election.
However, Trump’s second term will not begin until he is inaugurated on January 20, the day after the deadline set in law.
In its petition filed in the Supreme Court on Monday, TikTok sought a “minor delay” in implementing the ban to “create breathing space” for review by the court and to allow the incoming administration to “evaluate the matter”. Can be allowed to do. ,
It described TikTok as “one of the most important speech platforms” in the US and said the ban would cause “immediate irreparable harm” to the company and its users.
The company had bid earlier this month Ban rejected by a federal appeals court, which found that the law was “the culmination of extensive, bipartisan action by Congress and successive presidents”.
At a press conference on Monday, Trump said his administration would “keep an eye on TikTok.”
“I have a warm heart for TikTok because I won Youth by 34 points,” he said.
“There are people who say TikTok had something to do with it. TikTok had an impact.”
A majority of 18 to 29-year-olds supported Trump’s Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, in November, but the vote has seen a significant swing toward Trump among younger voters since the 2020 election.
trump Joined TikTok in June itselfBut the platform gained millions of followers during the campaign.
