The Chinese government is reportedly considering a situation where ByteDance sells TikTok’s United States base to X formerly Twitter owner, Elon Musk. The move will be a viable option if the US Supreme Court backs the sale or ban of the law on the app on January 19.
The bill, signed into law by President Biden in April 2024, gives TikTok’s parent company ByteDance until January 19 to divest its U.S. operations to another owner or face a ban in the country.
The US government argued that without a sale, TikTok could be used by China as a tool for spying and political manipulation. The Supreme Court appears indifferent to upholding the law ahead of the January 19 deadline for the company to sell TikTok.
In a report by Bloomberg, China would prefer the social media video content platform to stay under its ByteDance’s ownership but with a sale to Musk as they push to work with incoming president, Donald Trump.
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If the plan materializes, Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) would be acquiring the TikTok US which owns about 170 million American users and billions in ad revenue.
However, the development has been disregarded as “pure fiction” by an unnamed TikTok spokesperson. The report highlighted the extent of ByteDance and TikTok’s knowledge about China’s discussions of a Musk sale. It also mentioned how the Chinese government’s influence over the platform brought about the sell-or-ban law by the US government.
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