Elon Musk Says He’s Not Interested in Buying TikTok

Elon Musk says he has not put in a bid for TikTok, the popular social media platform that is facing a divest-or-ban law because of national security concerns in the United States.

Speaking virtually at the WELT Economic Summit held in Germany on January 28, Musk revealed that not only has he not put in a bid for the beleaguered app but cast aspersions as to why he would even consider it.

“I don’t have any plans for what I would do if I did have TikTok,” Musk said. “I would look at the algorithm and try to decide how harmful or helpful is this algorithm and what we could do to shift the algorithm to be more productive and ultimately be more beneficial to humanity. We should generally lean in the direction that’s more beneficial than harmful.”

A Bloomberg News report last month stated that Chinese officials were open to Musk buying the app. Musk is a close ally of President Donald Trump and has reportedly built up goodwill in Beijing thanks to the sprawling Tesla factory that exists in Shanghai.

However, Musk said that he doesn’t personally use TikTok and is not familiar with it. Adding that he occasionally sees a TikTok video when it appears on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter that he purchased in April 2022.

“I’m not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok,” he said. “I don’t acquire companies in general, it’s quite rare. Acquiring Twitter, now called X, was highly unusual. I usually build companies from scratch and the reason I acquired Twitter, which is what I said at the time, was to preserve freedom of speech in America and to the extent that we’re legally allowed to in the rest of the world.”

TikTok was supposed to be banned on January 19, the day before the new president was sworn into office. Trump immediately signed an executive order delaying TikTok’s ban for 75 days, giving the app more time to find a U.S. buyer.

However, TikTok disappeared from Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store and has not returned. It led to used smartphones with TikTok installed being sold on eBay for as much as $14,000.

Musk says it is “not clear to me what the purpose of acquiring TikTok would be apart from economics” while insisting he’s only interested in buying companies that benefit humanity rather than personal gain.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.