How reports The Wall Street Journal, Chu, who has known Musk for several years, asked the businessman close to Trump for his thoughts on issues ranging from the new administration to potential technology policy.
According to the newspaper’s sources, TikTok is considering Musk as a potential mediator for negotiations with the new presidential administration ahead of a potential ban on the platform in the United States. At the same time, the parties did not discuss specific ways to preserve TikTok in the country.
Chu has reportedly briefed executives at TikTok’s parent company ByteDance on talks with Musk, and ByteDance is “cautiously optimistic” about what could happen next.
According to WSJ, after the election of Donald Trump as US President, top managers of many large companies began to turn to Musk “for advice.”
In 2020, during his previous term as president, Trump signed an executive order banning TikTok and WeChat in the United States, which was later blocked in court.
In April 2024, the US Senate voted for a bill that would require China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US operations to a local investor. Otherwise, in 2025 the platform will be banned in the United States and will lose its largest market.
In early November, even before the results of the US presidential election were counted, experts said that if Trump wins, the “extremely pro-China” Elon Musk could become a mediator between the US and China on technology and trade issues.
Photo: Anadolu / Getty Images
Source: rb.ru
