On Tuesday, U.S. President Trump expressed openness to the idea of a billionaire, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, acquiring the popular social media app currently under scrutiny. The app, used by 170 million Americans, was temporarily disabled prior to a deadline for its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell it due to national security concerns. Despite reports from Bloomberg News that Chinese officials were discussing a potential sale to Musk, the company has denied these claims.
Following this, Trump signed an order to delay the enforcement of the law by 75 days to address concerns over data security under ByteDance ownership. Consequently, TikTok was made available for download on Apple and Android devices in the United States on Tuesday. Trump mentioned in a statement to reporters that he would support Musk buying the platform and proposed the idea of "buying it and giving half to the United States of America."
In a separate context, free speech advocates are opposed to the TikTok ban imposed by a U.S. congressional law and supported by former President Joe Biden. TikTok contends that it is not tied to China as claimed by U.S. officials, highlighting that its data and operations are stored in the United States on servers managed by Oracle. Musk, known for his presidential campaign expenditures, criticized the imbalance between U.S. and Chinese business environments, emphasizing the importance of freedom of speech while contrasting TikTok's operation in America with X, his own social media platform, being restricted in China.