Responding to the Supreme Court’s decision to “block” TikTok, the CEO of the platform, Shou Zi Chew, gave a post.

First, Shou Zi Chew thanks the new US president, Donald Trump, “for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that will keep TikTok available in the US.”

He also emphasizes that “we are grateful and pleased to have the support of a President who truly understands our platform — a man who has leveraged TikTok to express his own thoughts and opinions, connect with the world, and gather more than 60 billions of views from the content he uploads.”

Addressing users of the platform, he said: “To our users in the US, thank you for making the TikTok community such a rich and vibrant place, surprising and delighting us every day. Rest assured that we will continue to do everything in our power to ensure that our platform serves as your online home for unlimited creativity and exploration, as well as a source of inspiration and joy for many years to come.”

@tiktok

Our response to the Supreme Court decision.

♬ original sound – TikTok

In detail, Shou Zi Chew’s statement:

“Hello, I’m Shou.

As you know, we fight 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. On behalf of everyone at TikTok and our users across the country, I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to working with us to find a solution that will keep TikTok available in the US. It is a strong support for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship.

As we’ve said, TikTok is a place where people can build communities, discover new interests and express themselves — including more than 7 million US businesses who earn a living and acquire new customers through our platform.

We’re grateful and pleased to have the support of a President who truly understands our platform — a man who has leveraged TikTok to express his own thoughts and opinions, connect with the world, and garner more than 60 billion content views which uploads.

To our US users, thank you for making the TikTok community such a rich and vibrant place, surprising and delighting us every day. Rest assured that we will continue to do everything in our power to ensure that our platform serves as your online home for unlimited creativity and exploration, as well as a source of inspiration and joy for many years to come.

Thank you – more soon!”

The decision of the Supreme Court

It is recalled that the Supreme Court upheld the law banning TikTok in the US unless its China-based parent company ByteDance sells the platform by January 19.

ByteDance had sued the law, arguing it violated free speech protections for the app’s more than 170 million US users.

But that argument was rejected by the country’s Supreme Court, meaning TikTok must now find a buyer for the US version of the app or face a ban.

The court’s ruling is a blow to TikTok as it will be banned before the inauguration on Monday of President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to “save” the app.

Trump had asked the Supreme Court to delay implementation of the law to give him a chance to act once he returns to the White House. With the court rejecting that option and with the possibility of an immediate sale of the app not in sight, the ban will go into effect on the eve of Trump’s inauguration.

Trump also confirmed that he had a conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying they had “a great conversation about TikTok and a great conversation about a lot of other things.”

The court, however, noted that Trump once wanted to ban TikTok. “President Trump had said that TikTok had raised particular concerns, noting that the platform ‘automatically captures vast amounts of information from its users and can be used to advance the interests of the Chinese government,'” the court wrote.