Rapper Meek Mill has become the latest celebrity to make an offer to buy TikTok to save it from being banned in America.
The Going Bad rapper wrote in a post to X on Tuesday: ‘Sell tik tok [sic] to me!’
He joins MrBeast and Elon Musk as competitors for the social media platform, which may soon be banned from the US over national security concerns.
YouTube star MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, seemingly joked about purchasing the platform in tweet late Sunday night.
‘Okay fine, I’ll buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned,’ he posted on X, in a message that appeared to be nothing more than online banter.
But hours later the internet star, who has more than 300million subscribers on YouTube, doubled down on the assertion, claiming he had been in contact with possible billionaire investors.
‘Unironically I’ve had so many billionaires reach out to me since I tweeted this, let’s see if we can pull this off,’ Donaldson tweeted Monday.
Donaldson did not specify who had been in touch, but sources close to him told TMZ that his team is having conversations with ‘multiple parties’ who have ‘expressed interest in buying TikTok’.
Rapper Meek Mill (pictured at Harlem Parish on September 24, 2024) has become the latest celebrity to make an offer to buy TikTok to save it from being banned in America
The future of TikTok’s operations in US hangs in the balance, with the Chinese-owned platform planning to shut off its app for American users on Sunday, when a federal ban on the social media app could come into effect.
Donaldson’s alleged bid for partial ownership of the company comes amid reports that China is in ‘secret talks’ to sell TikTok to Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, who in 2022 acquired his social media X, formerly Twitter.
No official deal between Donaldson and any potential investors has materialized yet, according to TMZ.
But insiders familiar with the ‘ongoing conversations’ claim the wealthy investor groups think Donaldson would be an ideal partner for maintaining operations and expanding the business because of his ‘unique success’ on social media.
The sources also claim that Donaldson, who has an estimated net worth of $700million, would hypothetically secure equity in TikTok and become a minority owner in the platform.
However, they note it is too ‘premature’ to speculate exactly how much equity the influencer would actually have in the firm.
With a possible TikTok ban just days away, Beijing officials have become to explore alternative options, including the involvement of Musk, who may be uniquely positioned to bridge the divide between the world’s two largest economies.
‘Senior Chinese officials had already begun to debate contingency plans for TikTok,’ sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
YouTuber MrBeast (pictured at the 2023 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards at Microsoft Theater on March 04, 2023 in Los Angeles, California) has joined the bid to buy TikTok in an attempt to save the popular platform from being banned in the United States, it has emerged
Donaldson seemingly joked about purchasing the platform in a tweet late Sunday night
But hours later the internet star, who has more than 300million subscribers on YouTube, doubled down on the assertion, claiming he had been in contact with possible billionaire investors
Donaldson’s alleged bid for partial ownership of the company comes amid reports that China is in ‘secret talks’ to sell TikTok to Tesla billionaire Elon Musk (pictured in 2024). Musk in 2022 acquired his social media platform X, formerly Twitter
President Joe Biden (left, pictured in July 2024) had in April last year signed a law requiring Bytedance to sell its assets by January 19, 2025 or face a nationwide ban. President-elect Donald Trump (right, pictured in December 2024) , whose inauguration takes place the day after the law goes into effect, has said he should have time after taking office to pursue a ‘political resolution’ to the issue
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One intriguing proposal involves Musk’s company X taking control of TikTok’s US operations.
With more than 170 million users, TikTok would provide Musk’s platform with a massive user base and a treasure trove of data – and the perfect complement to his burgeoning AI enterprise, xAI.
Such a move could help X attract advertisers while solidifying Musk’s influence across social media, artificial intelligence, and global trade.
Musk’s ties to the incoming Trump Administration adds another layer of intrigue to the potential deal. Having donated more than $250million to Trump’s re-election campaign, Musk is seen as a trusted ally by the incoming administration.
It’s not clear how much TikTok parent company ByteDance knows about the Chinese government discussions or whether TikTok and Musk have been involved.
It’s also unclear whether Musk, TikTok and ByteDance have held any talks about the terms of any possible deal, Bloomberg reports.
President Joe Biden had in April last year signed a law requiring Bytedance to sell its assets by January 19, 2025 or face a nationwide ban.
TikTok and Bytedance have sought, at the very least, a delay in implementation of the law.
TikTok faces an imminent shutdown in the United States after Congress passed a law last year forcing its Chinese owner ByteDance to either sell the platform or close it by Sunday. The US Supreme Court is expected to rule this week on TikTok’s challenge to the law
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TikTok’s legal team has argued that banning the app violates American’s First Amendment’s free speech protections. However, national security concerns, underscored by the Supreme Court justices, may outweigh those arguments.
TikTok said in a court filing last month that it estimates one-third of the 170 million Americans using its app would stop accessing the platform if the ban lasts a month.
But last week, the Supreme Court seemed inclined to uphold the law despite calls from President-elect Donald Trump and lawmakers to extend the Jan. 19 deadline.
Trump, whose inauguration takes place the day after the law goes into effect, may issue an executive order that would suspend the TikTok ban scheduled to go into effect on Sunday.
The move would prevent US officials from enforcing the law for 60 to 90 days, two anonymous sources familiar with the deliberations told the Washington Post.
Trump’s inauguration is this Monday, one day after the nationwide ban is expected to be made official.
Sunday is the deadline for the TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, to sell its US assets or be pulled from US app stores due to concerns over the app’s links to the communist Chinese government.
Under that ban, Americans would still be able to use the app but new downloads would be blocked and its software would slowly degrade over time due to a lack of updates.
Trump has repeatedly told the more than 14million followers of his own TikTok account that he plans to ‘save’ the app once he takes office.
But experts have said that an executive order may not be an effective way to reverse the ban, as it cannot entirely overcome a law Congressed passed by a large margin, garnering support from both sides of the aisle.
Executive orders ‘are not magical documents. They’re just press releases with nicer stationary,’ former Department of Justice national security adviser Alan Rozenshtein told the Washington Post.
‘TikTok will still be banned, and it will still be illegal for Apple and Google to do business with them. But it will make the president’s intention not to enforce the law that much more official,’ he added.