Washington [US], January 22: US President Donald Trump said on January 21 that he is willing to let billionaire Elon Musk buy TikTok if the billionaire wants.
"I would love to buy it if he wanted to," President Trump said of the possibility of billionaire Elon Musk buying TikTok . "I met with the owners of TikTok, the big owners. So what I'm thinking of telling somebody is buy it and give half back to the United States," Trump added, according to Reuters.
When asked if he had TikTok installed on his phone, President Trump said he had not but might. "We won the young vote. I think I won that area with TikTok. So I have a warm place in my heart for TikTok," the president said. USA Today cited the results of a post-election survey showing that former Vice President Kamala Harris won 54% of the votes of voters under 30 while Mr. Trump only won 43%.
The Trump administration enacted a congressionally-passed law requiring parent company ByteDance to divest or face a ban on TikTok in the U.S. The ban was prompted by concerns that China was using the app to spy on Americans or influence public opinion through data collection and content manipulation. TikTok has denied the allegations.
The ban took effect on January 19, but on January 20, Mr. Trump signed an executive order delaying its implementation for another 75 days. As of the afternoon of January 21, US users can still use TikTok but cannot download it from the Apple and Android app stores.
Elon Musk has spoken about the unequal business environment between the US and China, when TikTok is allowed to operate in the US while his social network X is banned in China.
"I've been against the TikTok ban for a long time because it goes against free speech. That said, the current situation is unbalanced where TikTok is allowed to operate in the US but X is not allowed to operate in China," Mr. Musk said over the weekend.
Several other parties are said to be looking to acquire TikTok, including startup Perplexity AI and billionaire Kevin O'Leary of the US Shark Tank show.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper