Various famous faces are offering to buy TikTok following the announcement that it plans to cease operations in the United States this Sunday, January 19.
The move comes after the site and its parent company, ByteDance, lost their appeal against a law to ban it.
Last month, President-elect Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to delay a possible ban, saying he “opposes banning TikTok” and “seeks the ability to resolve the issues by issue by political means once he takes office.”
Yesterday (January 14), Bloomberg reported that the Chinese government – which owns a significant stake in TikTok – was exploring various options for the app’s future. One of them included the potential sale of the social media platform to tech billionaire Elon Musk.
The rumors come after the SpaceX CEO and Tesla bought Twitter for a staggering $44 billion in 2022 and rebranded it as X. A potential sale to Musk was reportedly valued at between $40 billion and $50 billion.
Multiple reports indicate that the Chinese government is reluctant to sell the app, and in December ByteDance claimed it had no intention of agreeing to a sale. Most recently, TikTok denied rumors that it would sell to Musk – stating, via News from the sky: “We cannot be expected to comment on pure fiction. »
Musk isn’t the only one with his name in the mix when it comes to buying TikTok. YouTube sensation MrBeast also told his subscribers that he was going to step up and acquire the platform to prevent it from being banned in the United States.
Yesterday on X/Twitter he posted an update: “Okay fine, I’ll buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned.” »
Although he has a reported net worth of $1 billion, he could theoretically buy the app – provided ByteDance agrees to a sale.
MrBeast would later share another update, insinuating that he was seriously considering making a bid for the platform. “Ironically so many billionaires have contacted me since I tweeted this, let’s see if we can make this happen,” he wrote, without naming which billionaires would be willing to get involved.
Besides Musk and MrBeast, rapper Meek Mill has also expressed interest in taking over the platform, although fans have mocked him for his involvement.
“Sell me a tik tok!” ” he wrote on X earlier this week, also adding: “If they cut tik tok we will x and FANBASE. »
In response to the comments, various fans began joking about Mills’ hopes of acquiring the site. A previous tweet reacting to TikTok’s first news saying “Wait, Meek Mill is about to tweet something stupid in all this chaos” has since gone viral.
“You really can’t steal his joy.” if I put my ear to his head I bet I would hear seagulls and the ocean,” another user wrote, while a third joked: “With all due respect, I don’t think not that you have the mental or financial capacity to handle it. .”
The measure to sell or ban TikTok was signed into law by outgoing President Joe Biden last year. This came amid allegations that the company’s ownership structure could allow the Chinese government to access the data of its millions of American users.
India banned the app nationwide in 2020, while Taiwan and Afghanistan did the same in 2022. Today, to date, more than 30 U.S. states, Canada, and the U.S. European Union have separately banned the use of the app on government-owned devices due to concerns it could pose. a security risk.
The consequences of a US ban on TikTok could have a significant impact on the Music industry. A recent report from the platform claimed that a majority of singles topping the US and UK charts in 2024 were associated with a TikTok trend.
Last year, TikTok entered into a new licensing deal with Universal Music Group, after the label initially removed its artists’ music from the platform due to its inability to reach a new deal. The site then shut down its streaming service, TikTok Music.
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