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The Chinese government is considering a plan that would Elon Musk to buy TikTok’s US operations to prevent an actual ban on the app, Bloomberg News informed on Monday.
The contingency plan is one of several options China is exploring as the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to uphold a law requiring China’s ByteDance to divest from TikTok’s U.S. business by Jan. 19, the report said, citing anonymous sources. sources.
After this deadline, third-party ISPs will be penalized for supporting TikTok’s activities in the country.
According to the plan, Musk will control both X, which he currently owns, and TikTok’s US business, according to Bloomberg. However, Chinese government officials have not yet decided whether they will continue, the report said, noting that the plan is still preliminary.
It is unclear whether ByteDance is aware of the Chinese government’s plans and whether TikTok and Musk are involved in the discussions, according to the report. Senior Chinese officials are discussing contingency plans for TikTok’s future in the US as part of broader discussions about working with the president-elect Donald Trumpattached to the report.
A TikTok spokesperson told CNBC in an email, “We shouldn’t be expected to comment on pure fiction.” X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last week, the Supreme Court held oral arguments on a law that would potentially ban TikTok, which President Joe Biden signed in April. TikTok’s legal team argued the law violated the free speech rights of millions of US users, while the US government said ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok posed a national security risk.
With the Supreme Court appearing to side with the government, TikTok could turn to Trump when his second term begins on January 20. Trump, who advocated banning TikTok during his first administration, has since backed away from the issue. At the end of last month he urged The Supreme Court should step in and force a stay on Biden’s ban to give him time to find a “policy solution.”
Trump’s rhetoric on TikTok began to turn after he met in February with billionaire Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor and major investor in ByteDance, who also owns a stake Social truthTrump’s social media campaign.
