Politics

TikTok CEO set to join other tech moguls at Trump's inauguration

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testifying at Capitol Hill.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to attend President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday. Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images
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TikTok CEO Shou Chew is planning to attend President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to Business Insider.

Chew has been invited to sit on the dais alongside other important figures, including Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, the source said.

The New York Times first reported on plans for Chew to attend.

TikTok did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

An appearance by Chew is notable, considering that a divest-or-ban law is pushing TikTok to go dark in the US on Sunday, a day before Trump's inauguration.

TikTok challenged the law in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in December but lost its case. It appealed to the Supreme Court for an emergency injunction to stop enforcement and awaits a decision.

Trump pushed for a TikTok ban in 2020, when he was last in office, but now he says he wants to save the app.

On December 27, Trump filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, asking it to pause the enforcement of TikTok's divestment deadline to give him time to find a political resolution. Trump met with Chew at Mar-a-Lago on December 16.

"You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok," Trump said at a press conference that day.

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Kwan Wei Kevin Tan
Kwan Wei Kevin Tan
Kevin was a reporter at Business Insider's Singapore bureau. He reported primarily on the ins and outs of the business world, whether it be breaking news, covering CEO moves, tracking quarterly earnings, or writing explainers.He also covered careers and workplace issues, and has written about career transitions, the FIRE lifestyle, the college internship arms race, and the job hunt struggles faced by computer science majors.BackgroundKevin joined Business Insider's Singapore bureau in 2023. Before that, he was a civil servant at Singapore's Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment. He was appointed to the Singapore government's Public Service Leadership Programme, a talent development programme that develops capable and talented individuals for key leadership positions in the public service.Kevin’s journalism career began in college, where he first worked as a researcher for Channel NewsAsia and The Economist, and later as an intern reporter at Bloomberg News. In 2017, the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust awarded him the Leading Change Journalism Bursary. His stories have appeared in numerous publications, including Fortune, The Japan Times, and The Edge Singapore.Kevin holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the National University of Singapore, where he was an NUS Merit Scholar. He was also the recipient of the PwC Whole Leadership Award, the NTUC Income Prize, the CFA Singapore Prize, and the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Prize.
Dan Whateley
Dan Whateley
Dan is a correspondent at Business Insider covering TikTok, YouTube, and the business of social media.He writes about how creators earn a living from social apps, the inner workings of companies like TikTok, and the many ways that social media is impacting Hollywood and other industries like e-commerce, sports, music, and news.He previously wrote about marketing and entrepreneurship at Ad Age and Inc. Magazine. He was a McGraw Scholar in business journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and a graduate of Middlebury College. Disclosure: Dan previously worked at the ad tech company, The Trade Desk, where he was granted stock as part of his compensation.