Musk says he has no plans to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations

In remarks made public on Saturday, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and a key adviser to US President Donald Trump, stated that he has no interest in purchasing the US operations of the social media platform TikTok.

In remarks made over the weekend via videolink at a German forum in late January, Musk stated, “I haven’t placed a bid for TikTok and I don’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok.”

Due to national security concerns about the data it collects on users, TikTok is facing a U.S. law that mandates the company be either banned in the country or split off from its Chinese owner, ByteDance.

One of Trump’s first actions as president was to order 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. “I don’t use TikTok personally, so, you know, I’m not that familiar with it,” he said. “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.

Musk was one of Trump’s main financial backers in his presidential campaign, and is heading the U.S. president’s budget-slashing initiatives.