Former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt has also offered to buy TikTok’s US operations and said he is “ready to work with the company and President Trump to close the deal.”
Canadian investor Kevin O’Leary, who was involved in that offer, told Fox News that ByteDance was offered US$20 billion for TikTok’s US operations.
He acknowledged legal uncertainty on the matter, adding that it remains an open question whether Trump’s executive order halting the ban would overrule the law.
“Congress wrote this law to be virtually president-proof,” warned Adam Kovacevich, chief executive of the industry trade group Chamber of Progress.
Sarah Kreps, a professor of government and law at Cornell University, stated that “If an executive order conflicts with existing law, the law takes precedence, and the order can be struck down by the courts.”
With TikTok being forced to shut down, its US-based rivals Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts could benefit.
Thousands of concerned TikTok users have turned to Xiaohongshu (“Little Red Book”), a Chinese social media network similar to Instagram.
Nicknamed “Red Note” by American users, it was the most downloaded app on the US Apple Store this week.