TikTok's CEO Shou Chew thanked US President-elect Donald Trump on Friday for his commitment to finding a solution that would keep the app running in the United States, after the US Supreme Court upheld a law requiring the platform to divest its China-based parent company or face a ban.
“On behalf of everyone at TikTok and all of our users across the country, I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to working with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States,” Qiu said in a video post, according to The Hill. “This is a strong stand in support of the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship.”
“We are grateful and honored to have the support of a president who truly understands our platform, who has used TikTok to express his own ideas and perspectives, connect with the world, and generate over 60 billion views of his content,” Chiu added, vowing to “do everything we can” to keep the platform available to its American users.
“To all American users, thank you for making our TikTok community so rich and vibrant, surprising and delighting us every day,” Chiu said. “Rest assured that we will do everything we can to ensure our platform thrives as an online home for limitless creativity and discovery, as well as a source of inspiration and joy for years to come.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected TikTok’s argument that the Abandon or Block Act violates the First Amendment, finding that the Biden administration’s concerns about national security and TikTok’s ties to the Chinese government justified its decision.
The Biden administration has voiced concerns in its Supreme Court filing about China’s access to data on US users of the app and its potential ability to manipulate the content users see on the app.
Despite the Supreme Court’s decision, the White House has said it does not plan to enforce the law, which is set to go into effect the day before Trump takes office.
“Given the reality of the timing, this administration understands that the actions necessary to implement the law should simply fall to the next administration, which takes office on Monday,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
Trump, who vowed to “save” TikTok during his campaign, had asked the Supreme Court to delay the law so he could negotiate a deal once he took office. He said Friday that he would make a decision on the app “in the not-too-distant future” but stressed that he needed time to review the situation.
Chew, who visited Trump at his Florida resort last month, is scheduled to attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
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