President-elect Donald Trump hosted TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Dec. 15, the same day the social media platform’s leaders asked the Supreme Court to block a law banning it, CNBC reports.
The platform’s leaders are asking the Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court ruling that would prohibit the social media app in the United States if the Chinese owner, ByteDance, doesn’t sell the company.
TikTok’s request came three days after the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.
When asked about a potential ban, Trump told reporters that he plans to look at TikTok.
“You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said, acknowledging the social media platform helped boost support among young voters in November.
In its request to the Supreme Court to review the appeals court ruling to uphold the law, TikTok’s lawyers said, “Congress has enacted a massive and unprecedented speech restriction. TikTok is an online platform that is one of the Nation’s most popular and important venues for communication.”
The lawyers added, “The Act will shutter one of America’s most popular speech platforms the day before a presidential inauguration. This, in turn, will silence the speech of Applicants and the many Americans who use the platform to communicate about politics, commerce, arts, and other matters of public concern.”
In the U.S. alone, there are more than 170 million TikTok users, according to the New York Times. TikTok points out that small businesses that use the app will lose more than $1 billion in revenue in just one month, and creators will lose nearly $300 million in earnings in one month.
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