The saga of TikTok is a confounding one, filled with allegations of Chinese espionage and pending Supreme Court rulings. It’s a story that involves Presidents and politicians, corporations, acquisitions, and the wealthiest man in the world. Is it any wonder that it could charitably be called a clusterf**k? On January 19th, TikTok is set to be banned in the US if the Chinese parent company of ByteDance refuses to sell to an American company or person.
Some reports are indicating that sale might be to Elon Musk.
If you haven’t been following this drama or just need a quick refresher, here’s the gist of things. During his first tenure as President of the United States, Donald Trump didn’t much care for TikTok. Not only were people taking to the platform to criticize him, but the company is also owned by China. Trump and other politicians at the time, alleged that TikTok was being used by the Chinese government to gather information about its American users. Some of this fervor died down, with Trump himself even saying he supports the platform.
But not before the US Congress passed legislation stating unless TikTok is sold away from ByteDance, the app would be banned in America.
The constitutionality of this law has been challenged but will take effect on January 19th, unless the Supreme Court strikes it down or the aforementioned sale happens. This is where rumors of a sale to Elon Musk started popping up thanks to a report from Bloomberg. According to their sources, a sale to the Tesla owner was a potential option being discussed.
In a statement from a ByteDance spokesperson offered a rebuttal. “We are not commenting on Bloomberg writing pure fiction,” they said.
There are a lot of moving parts to this story, and we expect there to be a few more of them in the days leading up to the impending ban. It’s not every day that a large social media company faces constitutional issues of free speech and legislative overreach. We’ll keep you posted.
