MrBeast Is Officially Trying to Buy TikTok

Ever since our new president, Donald Trump, temporarily saved TikTok from a nationwide ban, Americans have been wondering which deep-pocketed businessman will throw his hat in the ring to buy the popular social media platform. Now, we have a new contender: viral influencer Jimmy Donaldson (aka MisterBeast). “Okay, I’ll buy Tik Tok so it doesn’t get banned,” Donaldson Posted in X “I’ve had a lot of billionaires reach out to me since I tweeted this, let’s see if we can pull this off,” he added last week.

On Tuesday, Donaldson’s attorney CNN has been contacted The reality TV star was serious about buying the social media platform, and Donaldson is now part of a group of US investors pushing to scoop up the site. The Paul Hastings law firm, which is representing the group, said the bid came in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a previously issued law that would have forced TikTok to be sold or banned in the United States.

Donaldson—whose entire business revolves around Creating branded viral contentWant to own the most responsible platform for distributing branded viral content. Buying TikTok would effectively give him an infotainment monopoly, essentially the equivalent of winning the lottery for the world’s most powerful influencer.

The whole reason we’re in this mess to begin with is, last April, Joe Biden signed a bill This would force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell its app to the US company or face a nationwide ban. What commenters have mentioned A political mess That was, how popular TikTok is with young voters. When he returned to the White House this week, Trump easily took advantage of Biden’s unpopular decision. Trump signed the TikTok bill by signing an executive order A 75-day extension windowAt which point ByteDance will be allowed to find a suitable buyer, provided America retains 50 percent ownership of the platform. Trump has already indicated that he would be open to other well-known people buying the site — including billionaires Elon Musk and Larry Ellison.

There are signs, however, that Trump may support the Donaldson deal. Bloomberg reported That Brad Bondi, brother of Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick for attorney general, represents the investor group behind Donaldson’s push to acquire the platform. Trump and Bondi have a history together. Bondi was part of the legal team that helped merge the president’s embattled Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (which owns his social media platform, The truth is social) including A blank check company Last March, Bloomberg wrote. The deal was widely viewed As a bailout for Trump When his legal troubles were at their worst. Bondi previously represented Elon Musk in 2018 when the tech billionaire was charged with securities fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission, The Lever. As previously reported.

Why the US has moved so aggressively to ban its kids’ favorite social media platform is still not fully understood. D dominant narrative US officials worried about the platform’s ties to China and wanted to sever the connection between the company and its geopolitical enemy. An alternative theory, however, has worked as TikTok A popular vector Through which pro-Palestinian activists can distribute evidence of Israeli atrocities, thus turning America’s children against its special ally in the Middle East. As Mitt Romney said last year, When he said TikTok had an “overwhelming” number of mentions of Palestinians compared to any other social media site, which is why “there was overwhelming support to shut us down.” A Time op-ed Last year similarly blamed an increase in anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses in the United States over pro-Palestinian content

Since TikTok’s resurgence, rumors have swirled that the platform is now cracking down on pro-Palestinian content. But these rumors may be somewhat exaggerated. A 404 Media investigation released Wednesday found that The site does not appear to consistently suppress pro-Palestinian content. The site told reporters that the pro-Palestinian content did not violate its terms of service.

If bringing TikTok under U.S. control to stop the flow of pro-Palestinian content to U.S. viewers will set a precedent for the behavior of other American tech companies. A recent Human Rights Watch report on meta found that The agency practiced “systematic censorship of Palestinian content on Instagram and Facebook.” X And YouTube Also running into their own controversy involving Israeli-Palestinian content.