Elon Musk and TikTok? The App Denies It, But Could It Happen?
As the Supreme Court appears poised to uphold a U.S. law forcing the sale of the social media video platform TikTok, there is a scramble behind the scenes to figure out what to do with the app. Bytedance, the parent company behind it, says they’ll shut down the app in the U.S., while users across the country are upset it may have come to such an end.
However, there is a new report out suggesting that a certain billionaire tech mogul may be in the running to buy it – which will surely not go over well with the progressive left.
Elon Musk and TikTok?
According to a report from JP, Chinese officials are “mulling a potential option” to sell the app to the man who bought Twitter and renamed it “X” – Elon Musk.
While the Chinese government officially denies any involvement in the app, it does have access by virtue of its own laws on Internet regulation, have possession of every bit and byte of data collected by TikTok. That is a big reason why the U.S. passed a law to force the sale of the app. Faced with the possibility of losing arguably its biggest user base to U.S. law, Chinese officials appear to be seriously considering selling to Musk.
Chinese officials prefer that TikTok remain under the control of parent Bytedance, the report said, adding that the company is contesting the ban with an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Under one scenario, Musk’s social media platform X would take control of TikTok U.S. and run the business together, the report said, adding that the Chinese officials have yet to reach any firm consensus about how to proceed and their deliberations are still preliminary.
TikTok declined to comment, while Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment. X could not immediately be reached for a comment.
TikTok Denies the Report
However, in response to a question from Variety, TikTok has outright called the report “fiction,” calling the JP story into question.
However, as reporter Yashar Ali notes, the original report did not say TikTok was considering selling to Musk, but that Chinese officials were.
TikTok is now denying this.
In a response to Variety, a spokesperson said:
“We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction.”
But it’s important to note that the Bloomberg story didn’t report on what TikTok was planning; it said that Chinese officials were debating this plan.… https://t.co/kV2boSeHuS
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 14, 2025
It is a key distinction, to be sure. TikTok is not its own parent company. Bytedance is, and the belief among critics is that all that separates Bytedance and the Chinese government is a series of shell companies.
As the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., in an outstanding opinion by Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg, found, TikTok’s “ultimate parent” is a company called ByteDance, which is “headquartered in China” and conducts “significant operations there.” ByteDance has created a series of shell companies to attempt to obscure Chinese ownership and operation of TikTok, but both President Trump and President Biden issued executive orders specifically finding that TikTok was controlled by Chinese interests.
The Left Would Not Be Happy
Already furious with Twitter becoming X and then shifting to a more neutral position, the left would absolutely lose its collective mind if another popular app used by millions of Americans fell into the hands of Musk.
The billionaire tech leader, who is responsible for the rise of Tesla and SpaceX and who bought Twitter, is currently the bane of the progressive left’s existence. His close ties to Donald Trump, his siding with the MAGA movement, and his rejection of their policies have infuriated them to no end.
It’s currently only speculation that Musk could be in the running for TikTok, but it would certainly be entertaining…