(San Francisco) TikTok on Tuesday described as “pure fiction” the information according to which Chinese authorities would evaluate the possibility of an acquisition by Elon Musk of its American activities if ever the popular platform was banned in the United States by the end of the week.
Posted at 5:50 a.m.
“Senior Chinese officials had already begun discussing contingency plans for TikTok as part of a broad discussion about how to work with Donald Trump’s administration, one of which involves Musk,” sources said Monday. confidential to Bloomberg.
“We cannot be expected to comment on pure fiction,” a TikTok spokesperson told AFP on Tuesday.
“According to a scenario envisaged by the Chinese government, […] would take control of American TikTok and manage the two companies together,” Bloomberg said, estimating the value of TikTok’s operations in the United States between $40 and $50 billion.
The article noted, however, that the deliberations were “preliminary.”
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 app 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.
PHOTO CAROLINE GUTMAN, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Protesters near the United States Supreme Court on January 10 wore a “Keep TikTok” button in support of the platform.
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.
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.
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, specializing 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.
