TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew was seated next to Tulsi Gabbard, President Trump’s nominee to be the director of national intelligence, at the Capitol as Trump was sworn-in. The seating at the Capitol Rotunda was tight,

TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Chew attended President Donald Trump’s inaugural events in Washington, appearing at a church service before the swearing-in ceremony as his popular video-sharing app faces the threat of a nationwide ban.

Perhaps the least well-known of the tech chief executives in attendance is also the most surprising: TikTok CEO Shou Chew. In his first term, Donald Trump tried to ban the Chinese-owned app as a threat to national security.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, in a video message posted to the platform after the Supreme Court ruling upholding the U.S. law that threatens to ban the app, thanked President-elect Trump for his support in trying to find a workable outcome to keep the app legal.

In his first statement since the Supreme Court upheld a law that could ban TikTok from the US on Sunday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew offered no insight into what would happen to the app in just a few days. Instead, he took the opportunity to appeal to President-elect Donald Trump.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was open to billionaire Elon Musk buying social media app TikTok if the Tesla CEO wanted to do so. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT The short video app used by 170 mil