Days before the Chinese-owned social media app faces a ban from Washington, officials in Beijing are considering using Elon Musk as a broker in a possible sale of TikTok’s US business, according to two people familiar with the discussions. On Sunday, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, located in Beijing, will have to sell its share in the app or risk being banned due to security concerns, according to a measure enacted by Congress in April. Chinese officials are hopeful Musk may help arrange a compromise that could avoid the platform being forced to shut down, according to those involved with the talks.This includes Musk, a close confidant of Donald Trump and the billionaire owner of the social media platform X, who helped convince the US president-elect not to impose a ban.
One person described the current discussions as “very preliminary and mostly brainstorming.” The ByteDance and TikTok teams, the people noted, were still largely focused on winning the legal battle with the US government to prevent the measure from becoming law. A request for comment from the Financial Times was not immediately answered by Musk. Earlier on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Chinese officials were considering selling TikTok to Musk.
The day before Trump is sworn in on Monday, TikTok’s divest-or-ban policy goes into effect. The US Supreme Court has stated that it is likely to uphold the law. While Musk has publicly opposed any prohibition of TikTok’s US operations, Trump has pledged to “save the app” and urged for a postponement of the law’s implementation. Musk is in a strong position to negotiate agreements like the TikTok divestiture because of his positive contacts with Chinese officials. In recent years, the CEO of Tesla has conducted business in China and has interacted with Chinese government representatives. Experts argue that the billionaire’s visit to Beijing last April, where he met with Li Qiang,According to observers, the move by President Xi Jinping’s number two showed Beijing’s support for Musk and his technological ambitions.
In April, Musk said on X: “Even though a ban on TikTok might help the X platform, I do not think it should be banned in the USA.” The freedom of speech and expression would be violated if this were done. America does not stand for that.
Before the deadline, TikTok said that a spin-off would be technically “unfeasible.” According to China’s export regulations, Beijing would have a role in any divestiture. Beijing has stated that it is against a sale and has called the bill a “blatant act of commercial robbery.”