TikTok, China considers selling US assets to Musk to escape Supreme Court

2025-01-14 07:57:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

TikTok, China considers selling US assets to Musk to escape Supreme Court

Elon Musk

Five days before the expiration of the Congressional ultimatum (sale to non-Chinese ownership or closure of operations in the United States) and pending the decision of the Supreme Court, which must decide whether to give Beijing's social network a deadline before banning it, the possibility of a sensational development appears: according to Bloomberg, the Chinese government is considering the possibility of transferring control of TikTok to Elon Musk, who already owns a large social network, X (formerly Twitter).

The sources who gave the news to the American agency say that we are still in a preliminary stage: several hypotheses are being examined and no decision has been made yet. If the sale were to go through, there would certainly be fierce controversy. About the further expansion of the power of the Trump-Musk tandem in political communication and about the direct intervention of the Chinese government, since for years TikTok leaders have claimed to be completely independent of political authorities. According to them, the fear of government intervention to collect, through a platform with 170 million users in the US, information on the activities, habits, spending, cultural interests, ways of entertainment and thinking of American citizens is unfounded.

For now, nothing will change: TikTok is awaiting the Supreme Court's decision, which is expected to be announced by Sunday. But, as we have reported in recent days, preliminary arguments between judges and lawyers for the parties have led to a tendency for the judges to confirm the decision of Congress and the government. Thus, an alternative solution will probably be needed, not necessarily applicable from next Monday. Even in the event of a ban, existing TikTok users can continue to use the platform, although the quality of service will deteriorate due to the blocking of software updates. Removing the Chinese network from app stores will prevent new users from registering.

Musk's intervention would be sensational, but not entirely surprising. Trump faced the TikTok issue during his first term in the White House. Unlike today, then he was determined to declare the network illegal. Compromise solutions were sought and at that time an entrepreneur allied to the Republican leader entered the scene: Larry Ellison, who expressed his willingness to take over the management of the social network through his company Oracle, without giving priority to the Chinese owner ByteDance. As an alternative, an agreement was proposed under which all TikTok data would be stored on servers controlled by an American group, to prevent their transfer to China. Neither party ultimately accepted this solution.

Neither deal nor ban: Trump's term ended and the TikTok issue remained marginal for Biden for a long time. Now that the issue has resurfaced, it will be necessary to see what the Chinese are really willing to do (according to Bloomberg, the Beijing government may have gotten involved in the matter without even informing ByteDance, the holding company that owns TikTok).

Musk is a reliable broker, as he has large interests and Tesla's main factory in China, being a natural mediator between Beijing and Washington. And Xi Jinping's government, if it is to give up TikTok, will do so as part of a broader negotiation with Trump, from whom it fears particularly trade retaliation: high customs tariffs that have been threatened several times./Corriere Della Sera