The Chinese government is considering a plan for Elon Musk to acquire TikTok's U.S. business, Bloomberg News reported Monday.

Summary

China is reportedly considering a plan for Elon Musk to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations to avoid a potential ban, according to Bloomberg.

The move would satisfy a U.S. law requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok by Jan. 19 due to national security concerns.

If not resolved, U.S. service providers supporting TikTok could face penalties.

The plan, still preliminary, would have Musk oversee TikTok U.S. alongside X.

ByteDance’s awareness of the plan is unclear.

  • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    50·
    1 day ago

    I give it 12 hours before Trump magically starts supporting the tiktok ban that he’s been so against for the past year or so. And he’ll say he’s always been for banning it and how banning it supports Only True American Media. Etc etc etc.

    • minnow@lemmy.world
      19·
      24 hours ago

      It’s standard procedure to deny that a sale is happening untill the moment of no return because public reactions to the sale can impact negotiations. Rumors like the are denied no matter what, even if they’re true.

      So we can’t believe them, but we also can’t say for sure their lying. Basically we just have to wait and see.

    • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
      12·
      1 day ago

      Article seems to suggest that the government might be trying to make these plans without ByteDance’s knowledge

      It’s unclear whether ByteDance knows about the Chinese government’s plans and TikTok and Musk’s involvement in the discussions, the report said. Senior Chinese officials are debating contingency plans involving TikTok’s future in the U.S. as part of larger discussions about working with President-elect Donald Trump, the report added.

      A TikTok spokesperson said in an email to CNBC, “We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction.” X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

  • orclev@lemmy.world
    27·
    1 day ago

    Well, on the upside TikTok wouldn’t be used by the CCP for spying and propaganda. On the downside it would be used by Musk for spying and propaganda. I’d rather just see it banned.

      • frickineh@lemmy.world
        3·
        12 hours ago

        It’s less about people’s personal feelings about him and more that he turns everything he touches into a pile of shit that only a fanboy could love.

        • Free_Opinions@feddit.uk
          1·
          12 hours ago

          It’s not binary like that. Just because one doesn’t avoid everything he touches like the plague doesn’t mean they’re a fanboy then. Most people simply don’t care.

          • frickineh@lemmy.world
            2·
            11 hours ago

            I mean, people care that the user experience goes downhill after he takes over. The only people claiming Twitter isn’t hot garbage are the ones who actively like him.

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
    3·
    24 hours ago

    If true, this is so incredibly dystopian.

    Maybe the Chinese govt thinks Musk will be some combination of cooperative, and that his ownership will generally undermine the US, especially in respect to issues they’re interested in.

  • NaibofTabr@infosec.pubEnglish
    3·
    24 hours ago

    Musk & Trump have been talking about defunding CISA, FTC and SEC - that is, removing information security oversight, consumer protection oversight and financial oversight.

    Musk is financially linked to China through EV battery production. It’s no stretch of the imagination to think the PRC has some influence over him, which they’ve been building for more than a decade. So, Musk buys TikTok and expands his reach over social media (public influence), the PRC continues to have access for surveillance and influence campaigns, and Trump also benefits from the surveillance and influence. Everybody gets a piece of the action, and the federal agencies which would investigate, expose and attempt to block these relationships are disabled.