Business investor Kevin O’Leary, who is commonly known as a star of the TV show “Shark Tank,” said he offered the owners of TikTok $20 billion in cash to purchase the platform during a Friday appearance on the Fox News program “America’s Newsroom.”
A bipartisan bill, signed by President Biden, designates TikTok a threat to national security and demands ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, based in China, to either divest from the platform or sell it in order for TikTok to remain available in US app stores. ByteDance has until Sunday to comply.
The Supreme Court made its ruling on TikTok’s challenge to the law on Friday, affirming the ban.
O’Leary noted the penalties that could be incurred by any provider that grants access after the deadline.
“Anything that is providing services after midnight on the 19th – whether it’s Apple, Oracle, a video compression technology company that’s being paid as a consultant – or any provider keeping this going, is subject to a $5,000 a day fine, plus 170 million, which amounts to over a billion dollars a day.”
They claim companies are considering the potential risks involved in keeping the app active given the tightening deadline.
O’Leary stated that the leadership of companies hosting the TikTok app are likely being advised on whether any potential fines would be implemented, given the looming action from the incoming Trump administration.
We aren’t sure if a presidential executive order can supersede a law passed by Congress. There is a court case from 1937 that was used to achieve a similar result, but it’s uncertain that it would be considered applicable in other situations.
The Canadian businessman stated that he thinks the federal government hasn’t been able to verify whether American account holders’ data is being sent to China’s government, but that the potential risk wasn’t worth the cost.
“Nobody knows the full extent of what the algorithm provides in terms of data. There’s been a lot of speculation about it,” he said.
O’Leary stated he believed the risk led the Supreme Court to vote in favor of maintaining the ban last Friday.
“O’Leary emphasized that there’s a good reason they decided in favor of it. It’s not something worth taking a risk with.”
Lawmakers including President-elect Trump have been working to find a solution for the social media platform, which boasts 170 million users in the United States.
“Right now, $20 billion is on the table, cash, cash, $20 billion,” O’Leary announced as he concluded his turn in the discussion.
He’s waiting to see if this offer is sufficient.
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