MrBeast 'offers' to buy TikTok to stop it being banned

American YouTuber MrBeast has made a tongue-in-cheek offer to buy TikTok to avoid a potential ban on the platform in the United States.

In a matter of days, TikTok – the short-form video social media app used by more than a billion people worldwide – could be effectively banned from use in the US.

The looming 19 January deadline for a resolution has been nine months coming, amid concerns from US officials over TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, and their possible links to the Chinese government.

In April 2024, President Joe Biden gave ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok or face a ban on operating in the US. TikTok has 170 million users in the US, but officials are concerned about the security risk should that data get into the hands of China.

Despite being just days away from the effective ban taking place, it seems ByteDance is in no rush to act after denying reports that it was going to sell to the tech billionaire Elon Musk.

However, it seems they are not short of offers after the American content creator shared a tongue-in-cheek post on X/Twitter saying he would buy the platform the stop a US ban.

The YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, wrote: “Okay fine, I’ll buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned.”

It’s unclear how serious MrBeast is about the offer, but other X/Twitter users certainly had some strong feelings.

“Please stay far far away,” one person urged.

Another said: “I’d rather it be banned.”

Meanwhile, someone else said: “I would exclusively eat Feastables (MrBeast’s snack brand) if he did this.”

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