
US President Donald Trump said that he is theoretically open to the idea of the purchase of the social network TikTok by Elon Musk. He said this during an interaction with journalists at the White House.
The politician emphasized that someone from American businessmen should acquire buy TikTok of the Chinese company ByteDance and give a share to the US government. Trump welcomed such a development.
US authorities, including Trump, have been trying for several years to ban TikTok in the country because of the Chinese company’s ownership. In Washington, ByteDance was expected to sell the US division to US owners, as authorities considered the collection of data on TikTok users in the States a threat to national security. More than 170 million people use TikTok in the US.
On January 19, the social network’s ban on operating in the country while it is owned by China’s ByteDance went into effect. Some users in the U.S. received a notification when logging into the app saying, “Sorry, TikTok is currently unavailable.”
The platform was also removed from app stores in the US.
Trump later said that the app would be able to continue to operate in the country provided the US state transfers a 50% stake. Twelve hours after the blocking, the Chinese social network resumed work in the US.