ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is required to sell the app to a U.S.-based buyer or face a nationwide ban.

Could Elon Musk save TikTok in the US? China weighs option to sell the controversial TikTok social media app's US operations ahead of looming ban

After years of rejecting the idea of a sale of TikTok’s US assets to an American buyer in order to avert a ban, China and ByteDance may have found an owner they could live with: Elon Musk.

Musk acquired X (then Twitter) in October 2022 after a highly publicized back and forth, in which he gave up on the acquisition midway but ultimately closed the deal, paying $44 billion for the platform. X's user base has been on a decline since the acquisition, and advertising revenues have plummeted.

TikTok is currently on the verge of being banned, but reportedly, China is mulling the idea of selling the platform to Elon Musk.

TikTok denied a report that China is exploring a sale of the app to Elon Musk to keep TikTok operational in America amid a looming U.S. ban.

Towamencin Township Supervisor Laura Smith posted a now-deleted video in which she hit her chest three times and then extended her arm out in front of her, similar to Elon Musk's gesture last week.

"The video is absolutely abhorrent," said Katie Duffy from Towamencin Township. "I feel like there's no place for that in this community."

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump issued a pardon to Ross Ulbricht, who ran the dark web marketplace Silk Road under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.” Ulbricht has been serving a life sentence without parole since 2015, when he was convicted of multiple charges, including the distribution of narcotics.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that China was considering a TikTok sale to Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a close ally of President Trump, who already owns the social media platform X.