Elon Musk reportedly wants to buy Tiktok

The popular video platform TikTok faces an uncertain future in the USA. Since Congress passed a law in April requiring TikTok to change ownership to remain in the country, the debate about the app's security and its connections to China has intensified. Federal authorities have identified TikTok as a potential "national security threat" due to its ties to China, as there are concerns that American user data could fall into the wrong hands and be exploited for espionage or other harmful activities.

The ban has become a court case where Bytedance invokes freedom of speech as a reason to stop the ban, but in ongoing legal proceedings, the Supreme Court has shown skepticism towards TikTok's freedom of speech arguments. Chief Justice John Roberts has clearly stated that Congress's decision is not about the content on the platform, but about breaking the Chinese authorities' control over the app. As it stands now, American TikTok must have an American owner or be banned by January 19.

Now the publication Bloomberg reports that Chinese authorities are considering selling TikTok's American operations to Elon Musk. If the deal were to go through, Musk, who already owns X (formerly Twitter), would gain significant influence over two of the world's largest social media platforms. This could raise concerns about monopoly formation and increase security worries, as there are questions about whether Chinese officials could continue to have access to American user data even under Musk's leadership.

TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, has firmly dismissed the reports of a possible sale to Musk as "pure fiction."