Bloomberg assures that the Chinese authorities are considering letting X take control of American TikTok, while the American Supreme Court, supported by Donald Trump, should authorize the ban of the Chinese social network.
Elon Musk in Oaks, United States, October 18, 2024. (AFP / RYAN COLLERD)
The Chinese platform TikTok on Tuesday, January 14, described as “pure fiction” the information from Bloomberg according to which American billionaire Elon Musk could buy the American activities of the social network if he were ever 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.
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.
The Chinese government 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
part of a broad discussion about how to work with Donald Trump's administration, one of which involves Musk,” confidential sources told Bloomberg.
“We cannot be expected to comment on pure fiction”
a TikTok spokesperson told the
AFP
.
Entering the fold of X?
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. 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.
“According to a scenario envisaged by the Chinese government,
X (…) would take control of the American TikTok and manage the two companies together”
specifies
Bloomberg
. The article notes, however, that the deliberations are “preliminary.”
Donald Trump, who will be president of the United States again in a week, tried to ban TikTok at the end of his first term, in 2020, also 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.
Besides electric cars and rockets, Elon Musk has co-founded other companies, including xAI, the most recent, which specializes in generative artificial intelligence (AI), which requires mountains of fresh data:
social networks are ideal for powering AI models
. The entrepreneur has also gained political responsibilities. Donald Trump asked him to lead an external advisory mission to make massive savings in federal budgets.
