China Considers Selling TikTok US Operations to Musk: Bloomberg

The Chinese government is considering a plan that will Elon Musk Get TikTok’s US operations to avoid effectively banning the app, Bloomberg News informed on monday.

The contingency plan is one of several options China is exploring as the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to uphold a law requiring China-based ByteDance to divest its U.S. business by Jan. 19, the report said, citing anonymous sources.

After this period, third-party internet providers will be penalized for supporting TikTok’s operations in the country.

According to Bloomberg, according to the plan, Musk will control both X, which he currently owns, and TikTok’s US business. However, Chinese government officials have not yet decided whether it will go ahead, the report notes, adding that the plan is still preliminary.

The report states that it is not clear whether ByteDance is aware of the Chinese government’s plans or whether TikTok and Musk are involved in the discussions. Senior Chinese officials are discussing contingency plans for TikTok’s future in the U.S. as part of broader discussions about working with the president-elect. Donald Trumpadded the report.

“We cannot be expected to comment on pure fiction,” a TikTok spokesperson told CNBC in an email. X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last week, the Supreme Court held oral arguments on the law banning TikTok. President Joe Biden signed in April. TikTok’s legal team argued the law violated the free speech rights of millions of users in the US, while the US government said ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok posed a national security risk.

With the Supreme Court appearing to side with the government, TikTok could appeal to Trump when his second term begins on January 20. Trump, who favored a ban on TikTok in his first administration, has since weighed in on the issue. Late last month he he called The Supreme Court intervened and forcibly delayed the implementation of Biden’s ban, giving him time to find a “political solution.”

Trump’s rhetoric on TikTok has since changed met in February with billionaire Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor and major investor who owns a stake in ByteDance Truth SocialTrump’s social media company.

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