China discusses TikTok sale to Elon Musk as a potential opportunity – Bloomberg By Investing.com

Investing.com– Chinese officials are considering a potential sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to Elon Musk if the social media giant is unable to avoid a controversial ban proposed by U.S. authorities, Bloomberg reported Monday.

The report said that while Chinese officials preferred TikTok to remain under parent company ByteDance Ltd, they were already discussing potential developments, including the sale to Musk.

ByteDance challenged the ban in the US Supreme Court. But recent discussions indicated that US judges were also likely to uphold any potential ban on the short video platform.

Speculation over a TikTok ban grew as the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump approached, especially given that Trump has vowed to take an even tougher stance against Beijing.

The Supreme Court gave ByteDance a January 19 deadline to either sell TikTok or face a potential US ban on national security grounds.

TikTok is used by about half of the US population – about 170 million users. Lawmakers had expressed concerns that the platform was collecting US user data and undermining national security, with Congress voting for the ban last year.

A TikTok ban bodes well for other U.S. social media platforms such as Meta Platforms’ (NASDAQ: ) Instagram and Alphabet Inc’s (NASDAQ: ) YouTube, both of which had rolled out their own short-form video platforms amid heightened competition from TikTok.

A sale of the social media platform to Musk could bring it more in line with Musk’s treatment of Twitter, which the Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: ) CEO bought in 2023 and renamed “X.”