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TikTok distances itself from report of potential acquisition by Elon Musk

The company is scrambling to prepare for a new law that bans the service from app stores, which takes effect next Sunday.

The company is scrambling to prepare for a new law that bans the service from app stores, which takes effect next Sunday.

Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, appears at a U.S. Air Force event in Colorado Springs, Colorado on April 7, 2022.
Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, appears at a U.S. Air Force event in Colorado Springs, Colorado on April 7, 2022. (Photo by Trevor Cokley, U.S. Air Force, Graphic by The Desk)

Officials at the parent company behind social video sharing platform TikTok are trying to distance themselves from a report that suggested the service may fall into the hands of tech mogul Elon Musk later this month.

On Monday, financial news outlet Bloomberg reported officials with the Chinese government had contacted their counterparts in the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump to explore a number of ways that the service might remain in United States-based app stores.



The contact comes just days before a new law is to take effect, one that requires ByteDance to divest the U.S. part of its TikTok business to an American company or face a ban in app stores run by Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Samsung and others.

The law was embedded in a federal appropriations bill intended to provide military relief to Ukraine and Israel. Federal lawmakers and some government officials have justified the potential App Store ban by claiming, without much public evidence, that TikTok collects data of American users, which can potentially be shared with the Chinese government. ByteDance is based in China.



For its part, ByteDance has denied reports that it improperly collects or shares the data of American users of TikTok. But it affirmed last year that the Chinese government would likely block any attempt to divest its U.S. business.

ByteDance filed a legal action last year seeking to have the law overturned. Attempts to obtain an injunction — which would temporarily block the law from taking effect while the case is heard — have failed so far. The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the matter last week, but there are indications they intend to uphold a lower court’s ruling that rejected a request for an injunction, clearing the way for the law to take effect on January 19.



Trump himself floated the idea of a TikTok ban during his first time in office. But he has since changed his tune, in part because a number of Republican politicians and allies have strong followings on the platform. Trump asked the Supreme Court to delay its oral argument on the matter until he takes office next week, which the Supreme Court did not accept.

The Bloomberg report claimed officials within the Chinese government were exploring a number of different avenues to keep TikTok available in U.S.-based app stores after January 19. One of those plans included a pact with Elon Musk, who would acquire TikTok’s U.S. business and run it jointly with X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Bloomberg said it wasn’t clear if anyone at TikTok knew about the conversations. Their report was matched by a separate one published by the Wall Street Journal late Monday evening, which repeated much of the same information, attributed to unnamed sources.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for TikTok said they could not “be expected to comment on pure fiction,” though the spokesperson stopped short of saying the Bloomberg and WSJ reports were completely untrue.

Musk himself has not commented on the matter.

If the law does take effect on January 19, it does not necessarily mean TikTok must stop operating in the country. Apps that are currently installed on phones, tablets, computers, smart TVs and other devices will continue to work, but the guardians of the app stores will not be able to distribute updates to those apps over time, unless the law is overturned.

Users who delete TikTok from their devices will also likely not be able to reinstall the app at a later date, especially if they use phones and tablets made by Apple, which controls the installation of apps through their Apple App Store.

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About the Author:

Matthew Keys

Matthew Keys is a nationally-recognized, award-winning journalist who has covered the business of media, technology, radio and television for more than 11 years. He is the publisher of The Desk and contributes to Know Techie, Digital Content Next and StreamTV Insider. He previously worked for Thomson Reuters, the Walt Disney Company, McNaughton Newspapers and Tribune Broadcasting. Connect with Matthew on LinkedIn by clicking or tapping here.
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