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Elon Musk says he’s not interested in acquiring TikTok

Amid growing uncertainty over TikTok’s future in the US, President Trump had said that he was open to Musk taking over the ByteDance-owned app if he wanted to do so.

Musk said that he does not use the social media app TikTok and is not even familiar with the format of the app, adding “I don't have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok." (Photo: X / @elonmusk)

Billionaire Elon Musk has clarified that he is not interested in purchasing TikTok, the popular short video platform which the United States has been trying to ban due to concern over its Chinese owner ByteDance.

Musk, who is leading US President Donald Trump’s newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), made the comments in late January during a summit hosted by The WELT Group which is a part of the German media company Axel Springer SE.

Amid growing uncertainty over TikTok’s future in the US, President Donald Trump had said that he was open to Musk taking over the ByteDance-owned app if he wanted to do so. To which, Musk responded in the summit that “I have not put in a bid for TikTok.”

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Also Read | TikTok app unavailable on Apple, Google stores in US despite Trump delaying ban

Musk said that he does not use the social media app TikTok and is not even familiar with the format of the app, adding “I don’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok.”

Talking about his earlier billion-dollar acquisition of X (formerly called Twitter) as unusual, Musk said “I’m not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok, I do not acquire companies in general, it’s quite rare,” Reuters reported.

Also Read | What Trump executive order says on restoring TikTok, why US Supreme Court earlier banned it

TikTok parent ByteDance was given time until January to sell its US assets or face a ban in the country as lawmakers expressed concerns over security of American citizens due to the company’s base situated in China and Beijing could compel the company to share the data of its US users.

However, Trump had signed an executive order after taking office on January 20 to delay the enforcement of a ban. TikTok has about 170 million users in America.

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