ByteDance is already scrambling to avoid TikTok getting banned or shut down in the United States as January 19 is inching closer, and the clock is ticking for the company, with one of its contingencies involving one of the top tech billionaires of the present, Elon Musk. Sources are now claiming that Chinese officials of the multinational company are considering the sale of TikTok’s US operations to none other than ‘Mr. Tweet.’
However, if this deal with Elon Musk should continue, it needs to happen fast and it needs to happen now, with the law’s fight against TikTok being absolute, and it is not giving the platform any leeway to remain operational in the country.
TikTok Elon Musk Sale? ByteDance Considers Possibility
Bloomberg shared a new source who wished to remain anonymous, and they revealed new confidential discussions that could help TikTok out of its issues in the present, and it is a last-minute sale of the company. To be more precise, senior Chinese officials from ByteDance have several contingency plans that they are debating on, with their biggest consideration being working with President-elect Donald J. Trump.
In their discussions, one of the contingencies ByteDance has involves X owner, Elon Musk, the billionaire known for his strong connections to Trump, but also being an American businessman who can save the platform.
The company holds Musk’s strong relationship with Trump as a significant factor in saving TikTok from its demise, with the Chinese government already favoring the tech mogul to buy TikTok and prevent it from shutting down.
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TikTok US Operations with Elon Musk at the Helm
TikTok’s sale would reportedly go this way: Elon Musk’s X would take control of TikTok and its over 170 million users on the platform, but it will remain a separate app. That being said, it would reportedly be a mutually beneficial deal for both companies as TikTok could help X attract more advertisers and gain a massive amount of data for xAI’s training of Grok and other models, all while the Chinese social media platform remains operational in the country.
The US Ban Is Coming For TikTok
TikTok no longer has an ace up its sleeve in terms of fighting against the United States government’s Foreign Adversary law which is requiring the company to sell their American operations to a US-based company and leave ByteDance for good. The US District Court recently junked TikTok’s bid to delay the impending ban against them, particularly as the company failed to defend its case despite relying on the right to free speech as its main argument.
It is less than a week before TikTok’s operations finally come to a halt, and the company seems to have already swallowed the hard pill regarding its US operations coming to an end this new year. TikTok representatives have already revealed that they are planning to shut down their US operations come January 19, with millions of Americans finding themselves without a platform to share their content on.
Around five years ago, TikTok was also facing an upcoming ban against them with Trump previously asking them to sell their operations to an American company to which they beat the clock when Oracle came in to save the day. However, the Foreign Adversary law wants them to fully divest ByteDance, and their Chinese officials have several contingencies remaining, and Elon Musk is at the center of it.
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