As the U.S. government recognizes TikTok, the video platform of China's ByteDance, as a national security threat and shows signs of attempting to ban its use, TikTok creators hold a press conference at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Mar. 22 to express their opposition to such moves. Earlier, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a bill on Apr. 1 that grants the president the authority to impose a complete ban on TikTok usage. /Courtesy of Yonhap News.

The chief executive officer (CEO) of the Chinese video platform TikTok, Chu Shou-zi, is reportedly invited to attend the inauguration ceremony of President-elect Donald Trump amid the suspension crisis of services in the United States.

The New York Times (NYT) reported on the 15th (local time) citing multiple anonymous sources that CEO Chu has received an invitation from the presidential inauguration committee and plans to attend the ceremony.

This inauguration ceremony is expected to see the attendance of major figures from the big tech industry, including Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla; Jeff Bezos, chairman of Amazon; and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. CEO Chu is drawing attention as he attends this event while TikTok’s operations in the U.S. are in jeopardy due to the 'TikTok Ban Law.'

TikTok did not provide a separate comment in response to the NYT's request for commentary. The TikTok Ban Law, which passed through the U.S. Congress last April, stipulates that if TikTok's parent corporation, ByteDance, does not sell TikTok's U.S. business rights to local corporations, TikTok services will be banned starting from the 19th due to national security concerns.

TikTok has filed a lawsuit against this in U.S. courts but has lost in both the first and second instances. It then filed a motion for a restraining order requesting the suspension of the law in the federal court, but analyses suggest that the likelihood of the court accepting this is low.