WASHINGTON – General Atlantic CEO Bill Ford said on Wednesday that a deal would get done to save TikTok in the U.S. after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that halted a ban on the app for 75 days.
“It’s in everybody’s interest,” Ford told Axios at an event in Davos, Switzerland. Ford is on the board of directors for ByteDance, Tiktok’s Chinese parent company.
“We’ll get on with it, as soon as maybe the end of the week in terms of negotiating what might work … The Chinese government, the U.S. government and the company and the board all have to be involved in this conversation,” Ford added.
Trump’s executive order paused the enforcement of a bipartisan law passed by Congress last year that required ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. assets by Sunday for the app to continue functioning in the country. It was passed amid national security concerns that the Chinese government could get access to Americans’ personal information through the app.
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On Tuesday, Trump said he was open to billionaire Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, or Larry Ellison, co-founder of the software company Oracle, to acquire TikTok – an idea that Democratic lawmakers have balked at.
“That’s so predictable. I mean, anytime he can use his influence to lavish favors on rich friends, he does it. And this has all been just so predictable,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., who voted in favor of the bipartisan law.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said that Musk acquiring TikTok was “always a concern” of hers.
“My biggest problem is that we know that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), as well as Russia, have continuously participated in election interference. … But the reality is that I’m like, well, what’s the difference in Elon, you’re doing the same thing. So I feel like we need to have barriers around them, while also obviously preserving free speech,” she added.
But Republicans have been open to the idea.
“Somebody needs to take ownership of this from the Chinese Communist Party. I don’t know who it is. I mean, if it’s a U.S. citizen all the better,” said Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo.
“I don’t care if it’s Larry Ellison (or) Musk … any American that wants to buy it, would be great. Hopefully they would just keep it a free speech forum,” said Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas.
