Elon Musk
The world’s richest person and a top advisor to US President Donald Trump, Elon Musk has dismissed speculation that he is interested in acquiring popular social media platform, TikTok operations in the US.
Musk made this known at a conference in Germany, stating that he had not placed a bid for TikTok and had no plans to pursue an acquisition.
“I have not put in a bid for TikTok. I don’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok,” he said.
Musk’s remarks, published by Die Welt on Saturday, mark his first public comments on the matter.
He also noted that he does not use the app personally and prefers to build companies from the ground up rather than acquire existing ones.
In one of his first acts in office, Trump ordered a pause on enforcing the law that should have seen TikTok effectively made illegal in the country a day before he took office for a second term.
Soon after, Trump said he would be open to Musk — the owner of social media platform X, Tesla and a slew of other companies — buying the platform.
Musk, however, said he did not wish to acquire the company.
He said, “I don’t use TikTok personally, so, you know, I’m not that familiar with it. I’m not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok.”
Musk bought social media giant Twitter, which he renamed X, for $44 billion in 2022, insisting he was doing so in order to safeguard “free speech.”
Since his takeover, rights campaigners warn there has been a spike in hate speech and disinformation on the platform.
TikTok is facing a US law that ordered the company to break off from its Chinese owner ByteDance or otherwise be banned in the United States over national security concerns regarding the data it gathers on users.
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has targeted a range of federal government agencies and regulators, with the apparent intent of shutting them down and firing staff, especially those not in line with Trump’s political agenda.
On Saturday, a US judge issued an emergency order blocking Musk’s government reform team from accessing personal and financial data for millions of Americans stored at the Treasury Department, court documents showed.
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