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A new video going viral shows the CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, thanking President-elect Trump for his efforts in trying to delay the nationwide ban on the platform.
Chew's video, uploaded on X, comes on the heels of the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the ban on the app, citing security concerns and data mining. The federal government now has the right to legally bar the app in the country given that the app's parent company, ByteDance, has refused to sell it to a non-Chinese patron.
The video has since drawn varied reactions and comments, with some users even going so far as to suggest that President Trump and Shou Zi Chew may have been in the cahoots the whole time.
Here's what one user said, for example:
"Kinda crazy how Trump used to support the Tiktok ban and now he'll be celebrated as a hero for bringing it back... Maybe it was a setup all along to win millenials and Gen Z over or something."
The comments didn't end there, as scores online were up to the brim with opinions:
"You mean the app that sells data to data brokers? Nah some aren't as aggressive but their app is the worst it's no better than temu and AliExpress," one user opined.
"Trump doing anything to please the people atp, tbh tiktok needs to be gone," someone else demanded.
"It appears that he forgot it was Trump who started the whole TikTok ban in America," another pointed out.
Social media platforms like x were riddled with hundreds, if not thousands of opinions from different users:
"It was plan B all along where if TikTok didn’t sell the. Trump would swoop in like a saviour to rescue countless Americans from losing their TikTok earnings," one user echoed.
"Lol Yes, let's thank the man that set the ban in motion," yet another pointed out.
"Why are we thanking trump when he started the process…" someone else asked.
"He tryna glaze his way back," another said in jest.
Several hundred users pointed out that it was Trump who began calling for a ban on the app in the first place and is now accusing him of orchestrating the whole debacle so that he could gain control over the app. At the time of writing, there are no signs that the President-elect will be purchasing the highly sought-after entertainment platform.
Read TikTok CEO Shou Chew's vote of thanks to President-elect Trump below:
In the video, TikTok CEO Shou Chew can be heard saying:
“As you know, we’ve been fighting to protect the constitutional right to free speech for the more than 170 million Americans who use our platform every day to connect, create, discover, and achieve their dreams,” he began.“On behalf of everyone at TikTok and all our users across the country, I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States.”
He continued:
“We are grateful and pleased to have the support of a President who truly understands our platform, one who has used TikTok to express his own thoughts and perspectives, connecting with the world and generating more than 60 billion views of his content in the process. Rest assured, we will do everything in our power to ensure our platform thrives as your online home for limitless creativity and discovery, as well as the source of inspiration and joy for years to come. Thank you. More to come.”
The ban on TikTok is expected to go into effect on January 19, 2025, and while oral arguments against the ban were held on January 10, SCOTUS revealed that they would be upholding their decision after all. At the time, dissenting voices contended that the ban would infringe on the First Amendment rights of the American people.
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As for what President Biden will be doing about the ban, he has made it clear that he will not be stepping in, leaving the President-elect to tackle the issue on his first day in office.
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