The president of the United States, donald trumpsaid Tuesday that he was open to the billionaire elon Musk will buy the social media app TikTok if the Tesla CEO wanted to do it.
The short video app used by 170 million Americans was temporarily disconnected for users shortly before a law came into effect on Sunday stating that it must be sold by its Chinese owner ByteDance for national security reasons, or be banned.
BloombergNews reported last week that Chinese officials were in preliminary talks about a possible option to sell TikTok’s US operations to Musk, although the company has denied this.
Trump signed on Monday a decree which seeks to delay by 75 days the application of the law that was put in place after US officials warned that under the Chinese parent ByteDance, there was a risk that Americans’ data would be misused.
TikTok was still unable to be downloaded on Apple and Android devices in the United States as of Tuesday afternoon.
“I would be, if he wanted to buy it,” Trump told reporters Tuesday when asked if he was open to Musk buying the platform.
“I’ve met with owners of TikTok, the big owners,” Trump added. “So what I’m thinking of saying to someone is ‘buy it and give half to the United States of America.'”
Free speech advocates have opposed the ban on TikTok under a law passed by the US Congress and signed by the former president Joe Biden
The company claims that US authorities have misrepresented its ties to China, arguing that its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the United States on cloud servers operated by Oracle, while moderation decisions by Content that affects American users is also taken in the United States.
Musk, who spent more than $250 million to help trump to win the November presidential election, has said there was an “unbalanced” business environment between the United States and China.
“I have been against a ban on TikTok for a long time, because it goes against freedom of expression. That said, the current situation where TikTok is allowed to operate in the United States, but X is not allowed to operate in “China, it’s unbalanced,” Musk, owner of social media platform X, said over the weekend.
