Grammy-nominated rapper offers to buy TikTok to save it from being banned in America – as MrBeast and Elon Musk make similar bids

Rapper Meek Mill has become the latest celebrity to make an offer to buy TikTok to prevent it from being banned in America.

The Going Bad rapper wrote in a post to X on Tuesday: “Selling tick tock [sic] for 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, joked about purchasing the platform in tweet late Sunday night.

“Okay, I’m buying TikTok so it doesn’t get banned,” he posted on X, in a message that seemed like nothing more than online chatter.

But hours later the internet star, who has more than 300 million subscribers on YouTube, repeated the claim, claiming he had been in contact with potential billionaire investors.

“It’s ironic that so many billionaires have contacted me since I tweeted this, let’s see if we can make this happen,” Donaldson tweeted on Monday.

Donaldson did not specify who had been in contact, but sources close to him told TMZ that his team is in discussions with “multiple parties” who have “expressed interest in purchasing TikTok.”

The future of TikTok’s U.S. operations hangs in the balance, with the Chinese platform planning to shut down its app to U.S. 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 took over his social media company X, formerly Twitter, in 2022.

According to TMZ, no official deal has yet been reached between Donaldson and potential investors.

But insiders familiar with the “ongoing discussions” claim that the wealthy investor groups believe Donaldson would be an ideal partner to maintain operations and expand the company because of his “unique success” on social media.

The sources also claim that Donaldson, who has an estimated net worth of $700 million, would hypothetically secure shares in TikTok and become a minority owner on the platform.

However, they note that it is too “premature” to speculate exactly how many shares the influencer would actually own in the company.

With a possible TikTok ban within days, Beijing officials have begun exploring alternative options, including the involvement of Musk, who may be uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between the world’s two largest economies.

‘Senior Chinese officials had already started discussing contingency plans for TikTok’ sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

One intriguing proposal means that Musk’s company X will take control of TikTok’s US operations.

With more than 170 million users, TikTok would provide Musk’s platform with a huge user base and a wealth of data – and the perfect complement to his fast-growing AI venture, xAI.

Such a move could help X attract advertisers while strengthening Musk’s influence over social media, artificial intelligence and global trade.

Musk’s ties to the new Trump administration add another layer of intrigue to the potential deal. Musk has donated more than $250 million to Trump’s re-election campaign and is seen as a trusted ally by the new administration.

It is not clear how much TikTok parent company ByteDance knows about the Chinese government talks and whether TikTok and Musk have been involved.

It is also unclear whether Musk, TikTok and ByteDance have had discussions about the terms of a potential deal. Bloomberg reports.

President Joe Biden had signed a law in April last year requiring Bytedance to sell its assets by January 19, 2025, or face a nationwide ban.

TikTok and Bytedance have at least sought a delay in implementing the law.

TikTok’s legal team has argued that banning the app violates the U.S. First Amendment’s free speech protections. However, national security concerns, underscored by the Supreme Court justices, may outweigh these arguments.

TikTok said in a court filing last month that it estimates that a third of the 170 million Americans who use the app would stop accessing the platform if the ban lasts a month.

But last week the Supreme Court appeared inclined to uphold the law, despite calls from newly elected President Donald Trump and lawmakers to extend the Jan. 19 deadline.

Trump, whose inauguration takes place the day after the law takes effect, could issue an executive order that would suspend the TikTok ban that was set to take effect on Sunday.

The move would prevent U.S. 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 next Monday, a day after the nationwide ban is expected to be made official.

Sunday is the deadline for TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, to sell its U.S. assets or be removed from U.S. app stores over concerns about the app’s ties to the communist Chinese government.

Under that ban, Americans would still be able to use the app, but new downloads would be blocked and the software would slowly deteriorate over time due to a lack of updates.

Trump has repeatedly told the more than 14 million followers of his own TikTok account that he plans to “save” the app once he comes to power.

But experts have said an executive order may not be an effective way to overturn the ban because it cannot completely circumvent a law that passed Congress by a wide margin and has support from both sides of the aisle.

Executive orders “are not magical documents. They’re just press releases with nicer stationery,” former Justice Department 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 much more official,” he added.