Chinese authorities are evaluating the possibility of Elon Musk acquiring TikTok’s US operations. The Bloomberg agency reported Monday that such a scenario is being considered if the popular platform is banned in the United States by the end of the week.
The United States passed a law last year that requires Chinese entertainment giant ByteDance to sell TikTok by January 19, 2025, or face a ban in the country where the application has 170 million users.
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The case went up to the American Supreme Court, which heard the arguments of both parties on Friday: Washington says it wants to prevent the risks of espionage and manipulation by Beijing, while the social network and associations accuse the law of stifle freedom of expression. A clear majority of judges were willing to authorize the ban.
Beijing and ByteDance have always openly opposed a sale of the American part of TikTok. But “senior Chinese officials had already begun debating contingency plans for TikTok as part of a broad discussion about how to work with Donald Trump’s administration, one of which involves Musk,” reports said. confidential sources to Bloomberg.
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“Preliminary” discussions
Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, created a surprise by displaying his desire to buy Twitter in early 2022. After months of twists and turns and attacks on the platform, he ended up acquiring it for $44 billion.
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The richest man in the world then renamed it X and used it extensively to support Donald Trump, in addition to his large financial contributions to the Republican.
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“According to a scenario envisaged by the Chinese government, X (…) would take control of American TikTok and manage the two companies together,” specifies Bloomberg. The article notes, however, that the deliberations are “preliminary.”
Donald Trump, who will again be President of the United States in a week, tried to ban TikTok at the end of his first term, in 2020, already in the name of national security. He has since reversed his position, claiming to have a “soft spot” for the application and its young audience.
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