As the date of the TikTok ban looms closer and the US Supreme Court is likely to uphold the law, ByteDance, the parent company of the social media app, and the Chinese government may have a plan to continue its activity in the country: selling the US operations to Elon Musk.
According to Bloomberg, the plan is seen as a last-ditch effort by the TikTok parent company and Chinese officials, preliminary as it is, as a way to circumvent the ban. When asked about the potential sale of its US Operations to Musk, however, a spokesperson said that “We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction”. For that matter, X also has yet to comment.
Trump is an unlikely ally to ByteDance at this point; last month, the man made the request to the Supreme Court to delay the ban, with his office saying that they wish to find a solution through “political means”, although speculation suggests that he’s merely acting out in contempt for Facebook. The Meta-owned social media platform banned him after he incited the insurrection of 6 January 2021, after he refused to concede the election results.
