"Atleast it's better than Elon" — Internet reacts as MrBeast hints at buying TikTok ahead of it being banned

On January 14, MrBeast took to X that he’s willing to buy TikTok to prevent its ban in the U.S.

The social media sensation took to X to tweet:

“Okay fine, I’ll buy Tik Tok so it doesn’t get banned.”

The tweet had amassed over 3.7 million views at the time of writing this article.

The Supreme Court ruled that the app will be banned by January 19 unless its U.S. operations are sold. Meanwhile, there are rumors about Elon Musk taking over TikTok.

According to Bloomberg, the Chinese government was meanwhile debating Elon Musk’s X taking control of TikTok U.S., where both the platforms would be run together by the Tesla CEO. However, it is worth noting that TikTok’s owners, ByteDance, had not commented on the same. It also remains unclear as to whether they were aware of the Chinese government’s decision to have Elon Musk and TikTok U.S. collaborate.

Meanwhile, netizens have taken to X to react to MrBeast’s tweet with one person saying:

Several others reacted to the YouTuber’s tweet in a humorous manner with comments online reading:

“I would have laughed at this two years ago. Now I’m like… maybe,” an X user said.

“Firstly bro you should buy snapchat and remove all filters. Because girls deceive boys by applying filters…,” another platform user said.

“Finally a good philanthropy video,” another netizen said.

Several others also opined that MrBeast did not have enough money to buy TikTok U.S. Comments online read:

“You don’t have that sort of money gang,” an X user said.

“Isn't it worth like 10s of billions of dollars? Beast doesn't have elon money,” another platform user said.

“I’ll give you a dollar to help you buy it,” another netizen said.

As of January 12, MrBeast had over 106 million followers on TikTok, making him the third most followed content creator on the video-sharing platform. Meanwhile, other reactions read:

“What kind of challenge we gonna have to do to win it,” an X user said.

“Is MrBeast gonna be the next Elon,” another netizen said.

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How will the TikTok ban in the U.S. be initiated? Details revealed as MrBeast’s tweet goes viral

The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which was signed off by President Joe Biden, grants the government authority to ban applications in the country, like TikTok, if they are deemed as a threat to national security.

As per NPR, Kate Ruana, the director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in an interview on January 13 that TikTok will not “disappear” from phones on January 19 or January 20; however, users will be unable to download the app or update new versions of it.

Meanwhile, TikTok officials have stated that if TikTok users in the U.S. attempt to open the app on January 19, a prompt indicating that their services are not available in the country will show up.

With Donald Trump soon taking office, it's uncertain if his presidency will impact the Supreme Court's decision on banning TikTok. While he previously called the app a national security threat and tried to ban it, during his second campaign, Trump praised TikTok for helping him connect with voters.

Platform users now await to see the outcome with January 19 looming.