The information is originally reported by the news agency Bloomberg ahead of the deadline for the platform's American operations.
The Chinese parent company Bytedance has until January 19 to sell the operations to an owner in the USA, otherwise it will be banned from the American market according to the law passed in the USA last year. The background to the law proposal is that the company is collecting data from American users – which is ultimately feared to reach the Chinese state.
The solution now being discussed from the Chinese side is to let Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), buy the operations if the company does not get the right regarding the appeal against the ban.
"Pure fiction"
However, the company repeats to the British BBC that a sale is not current.
We cannot be expected to comment on pure fiction, says a spokesperson.
According to Bloomberg, such a solution from the Chinese side would be seen as a cooperation with Donald Trump's coming government, where Musk is seen as a close ally to Trump.
For Elon Musk, the deal could contribute to attracting advertisers to X, writes Bloomberg. Musk also has a separate AI company, xAI, which in turn can benefit from the data masses generated by Tiktok.
Musk has a lot to gain from a takeover, believes media strategist Brit Stakston.
He gets access to a lot of user data from 170 million American Tiktok users, she says.
Insight into algorithms
Moreover, Musk would get an insight into how the algorithms work – something many crave. As X has developed, it is not an attractive advertising platform, according to Stakston. Being able to increase advertising revenue is thus another gain.
User-wise, a new owner would not lead to any change, predicts Stakston.
On the contrary, if it means that the security doubts – which one rightly has around Tiktok and potential Chinese access to data – disappear, she says and continues:
But it's a long way to go, and I don't think it will be possible for Musk to buy Tiktok considering the concerns about Chinese involvement and other competition legislation.
