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Chinese officials are discussing involving Elon Musk in the U.S. operation of TikTok, two people familiar with the discussions said, days before Washington imposed a ban on the Chinese-owned social media app.
TikTok is set to shut down in the U.S. next Sunday, following a bill passed by Congress in April that would require Beijing-based parent ByteDance to sell its stake in the app or face a ban over security concerns.
According to people familiar with the official discussions, the plans may not be as simple as wanting to sell TikTok to Mook, the billionaire owner of social media app X and US President-elect Donald Trump. Trump’s closest confidant. However, they hope that a solution will help brokers to prevent Mook from being forced to close the platform.
The discussions at this stage are “very preliminary and mostly intellectual”, according to one of them. Byte Dance and Tik Tok groups are still focused on winning their legal battle with the US government, the people added.
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Chinese authorities were weighing a sale of TikTok to Mook. In response, TikTok said, “We can’t wait to comment on pure fiction.”
The divestment or ban on TikTok will take effect on Sunday, a day before Trump’s inauguration. The US Supreme Court has indicated that it may allow the law to stand. Trump and Musk have previously suggested that TikTok needs to be saved in the US.
Musk has a good relationship with Chinese officials, putting deals like the TikTok divestment through arbitration. Tesla’s CEO has regularly done business with government officials at various levels in China for several years in his trading territory.
Last April, the billionaire flew to Beijing to meet President Xi Jinping’s number two Li Qiang, a sign of Beijing’s approval of Mask and its technology plans, experts said.
Moreover, Musk has a strong economic interest in maintaining friendly relations with China, as Tesla’s share of China’s EV sales has declined significantly in the past year. Tesla debuted its Model Y flagship model update in China earlier this month.
Musk also owns artificial intelligence startup x.AI, whose technology is trained on X user posts and can access vast amounts of TikTok data.
TikTok has gained popularity among young people and now counts 170 million US users. The app has been under fire from Washington officials over concerns it could be used by Beijing for espionage or propaganda purposes.
In hearings at the US Supreme Court last week, TikTok rejected the lawsuit, saying the law violated First Amendment protections of free speech.
Trump has vowed to “save the app” and asked the court to delay the legislative deadline “to give us an opportunity to find a political solution to the questions about the issue” when he returns to the White House later this month. They pleaded.
“In my opinion, Tik Tok should not be banned in the USA, although such a ban would benefit the X platform,” Musk wrote on X in April. “Doing so is against freedom of speech and expression. . America is not where it stands.”
Tik Tok has argued that the rollover is technically “impossible” before the deadline. Beijing, which has a say in any way under China’s export laws, says it opposes the sale, calling the law “an eye-popping commercial extortion.”
Jones Day’s Noel Francisco, a lawyer for TikTok, said on Friday that the diversion would be “extremely difficult in any timeframe.” Asked what would happen on January 19 if the company loses the case, he replied, “As I understand it, we’re going to be in the dark.”
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Financial Times. China’s Cyberspace Administration and China’s Ministry of Commerce did not respond to calls outside business hours.
Additional reporting from Hannah Murphy in San Francisco and Stefania Palma in Washington, DC
