Earlier this week, Bloomberg released a report claiming that Chinese officials are looking into potential sales of the US version of TikTok to avoid the TikTok Ban. One possible buyer floated in the report is Tesla/X (nee Twitter)/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
This was partially put out since Elon Musk was a major supporter of the Donald Trump administration, having contributed over $250 million to Trump's reelection campaign. Trump himself has signaled that he might reverse the TikTok ban that was actually started under his first administration and finalized under the current Biden presidency.
Currently, ByteDance is appealing the ban in the US Supreme Court, though there are early signs that the court plans to uphold the ban. If that is the case, it means that ByteDance would need to divest its stake in TikTok or effectively remove the popular social media app in the United States.
"A potential high-profile deal with one of Trump’s closest allies holds some appeal for the Chinese government," Bloomberg wrote.
Strangely, the article reports that this may be a discussion between Chinese officials and US-based officials and companies without the knowledge of ByteDance.
ByteDance denied the report to Variety. A spokesperson said, "We can't be expected to comment on pure fiction."
In response, TikTok users have switched to another Chinese app, RedNote, which recently shot to the top of app store charts. That app is currently Mandarin only and has faced similar censorship criticisms as TikTok, which is notorious for inducing childish doublespeak in users to avoid saying words like kill, death or suicide on the app.
There is speculation that the move has been partially spite-driven as "TikTok refugees" purposefully pick another Chinese app over American companies like Reels, Threads and X.
At the same time, recent moves by Meta, which owns Instagram, Whatsapp and Facebook, have reportedly been seen as unappealing to younger generations. This includes Meta removing its fact-checking department and a rightward turn by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who recently went on the popular Joe Rogan podcast and decried previous attempts by the Biden administration to get disinformation off Meta's platforms.
For now, TikTok still exists in the US, but who knows for how long, if it will get sold or if Trump will reverse the ban.
The equally controversial YouTuber, Mr. Beast, seemingly joked on X that he would buy TikTok so it doesn't get banned. A recent Parade report claimed the YouTube star is worth $1 billion and a Forbes article claimed he earns $85 million a year. Numbers that are probably not enough to purchase TikTok, which could be worth as much as $100 billion.
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