Confident TikTok CEO affirms app’s permanence post-Biden’s sale mandate
TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, vows the platform’s survival following President Biden’s law to sell or ban the app. ByteDance faces a 2025 deadline to divest from TikTok. Plans for legal action are to challenge the legislation on First Amendment grounds. The House overwhelmingly passed the bill, with senators initially expressing reservations due to free speech concerns and opposition from former President Trump.
TikTok’s chief executive vowed Wednesday that the platform would not be going anywhere in the wake of legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden that would ban or force a sale of the popular video app.
“Rest assured — we aren’t going anywhere,” CEO Shou Zi Chew said in a video posted on the platform after Biden signed the legislation that requires ByteDance, the Chinese parent company, to divest from TikTok or face a ban. “We are confident and we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts.”
Company officials said they plan to pursue a legal challenge to block the legislation, which sets a Jan. 19, 2025, deadline for the sale, one day before Biden’s first term as president is over. TikTok is set to challenge the bill on First Amendment grounds.
“Politicians may say otherwise, but don’t get confused: Many who sponsored the bill admit a TikTok ban is their ultimate goal,” Chew said in the video. “The facts and the Constitution are on our side, and we expect to prevail again.
The House passed the bill to push ByteDance to divest from TikTok within six months or face the app being banned in the United States. The vote was an overwhelming 352 to 62 in favor. At first, many senators expressed reservations about the legislation amid concerns about constitutional rights to free expression, backlash from young voters in a critical election year, and opposition to the proposal from former President Donald Trump.
In late March, senators participated in a classified national security briefing aimed to convince them that the appropriate move is for ByteDance to divest from the application instead of a full ban in the country, according to a source briefed on the matter. Lawmakers ultimately updated the bill to give ByteDance more time to divest from TikTok and more senators got on board.
When Trump was in the White House, he issued executive orders to try to force ByteDance’s hand to sell TikTok, but ultimately, those orders were blocked by legal challenges. However, the former president is now seeking to blame Biden for the possible ban.
“Just so everyone knows, especially the young people, Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok,” Trump said Monday in a post on his Truth Social platform, urging voters to pay attention.
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Biden’s reelection campaign plans to continue using TikTok through the election, according to reporting from NBC News. Trump’s presidential campaign has not joined TikTok. Biden signed a bill that banned U.S. government employees from using the application on government-issued devices.
“As we continue to challenge the unconstitutional ban, we will continue investing and innovating to ensure TikTok remains a space where Americans of all walks of life can safely come to share their experiences, fine joy and be inspired,” TikTok officials said in a public statement Wednesday.
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