X owner, Elon Musk has refuted claims that he is interested in acquiring the US arm of the Chinese short video platform, TikTok. Recall that TikTok has been embroiled in the throes of a ban by the US government over national security concerns with its Chinese owner ByteDance.
The new claims come from Musk’s comments via a video call as a part of an event session in late January. The videos were released online Saturday by The Welt Group, a part of the German media company Axel Springer, which hosted the summit.
“I have not put in a bid for TikTok,” Musk said just a week after US President Donald Trump said he was open to Musk buying the ByteDance-owned app if he wanted to do so.
Recall that it was in the news four weeks ago that the Chinese government is reportedly considering a situation where ByteDance sells TikTok’s United States base to Tesla founder if the US Supreme Court backs the sale or ban of the app on January 19, a day before President Donald Trump was sworn in.
A report by Bloomberg indicates that China would prefer the social media video content platform to stay under ByteDance’s ownership and. a sale to Musk as an alternative as part of a plan to work with incoming president, Donald Trump. TikTok owns about 170 million American users and billions in ad revenue.
However, an unnamed spokesperson told BI that the news was unfounded.
But, Elon Musk claimed on the panel that he does not use the short video app personally, and was not familiar with the app’s format.
“I’m not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok, I do not acquire companies in general, it’s quite rare,” Musk said, adding that his billion-dollar acquisition of social media platform Twitter, now called X, was unusual. “I usually build companies from scratch.”
Read also: Community guidelines: TikTok removes 2 million videos in Nigeria in Q3 2024
TikTok status in the US is still in limbo
For months now, TikTok has been caught in a dilemma over the “sell or ban” law. This follows years of allegations from the U.S. government that TikTok’s ties to China pose a national security risk and that it exposes Americans’ sensitive information to the Chinese government.
Subsequently, the social media company has been battling for months with a bill signed into law by President Biden in April 2024. The move mandates ByteDance to divest its U.S. operations to another owner by January 19 or face a ban that will halt its download on download App stores.
Though there has been a series of appeals from two TikTok operating entities and a group of U.S., TikTok users observed that the app stopped working on Saturday (18th of January) before the law officially took effect on Sunday (the 19th).
The platform restored service for users a day after following a promise by President-elect Donald Trump that he would revive the app’s access in the U.S. when he returns to power on Monday. “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned,” a message notified users.
Yet, Apple and Google have not reinstated TikTok to their app stores since a US law took effect. TikTok said on Friday that it was allowing US Android users to download and connect to the app through package kits on its website, to circumvent restrictions on the popular platform in the country.
Trump saving TikTok represents a reversal in stance from his first term in office. In August 2020, Trump signed an executive order giving ByteDance 90 days to sell TikTok but then blessed a deal structured as a partnership rather than a divestment. He has subsequently suggested that he was in talks with multiple people over TikTok’s purchase.
Technext Newsletter
Get the best of Africa’s daily tech to your inbox – first thing every morning.
Join the community now!
