“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary suggested that he will buy social media platform TikTok if a proposed ban goes ahead Friday.
“Not going to get banned, ‘cause I’m gonna buy it,” O’Leary said on Fox News’ “The Story” in an interview with anchor Gillian Turner. “Somebody’s going to buy it, it won’t be Meta and it won’t be Google, ‘cause…regulator [will] stop that.”
On Tuesday, a bipartisan House bill that would ban the popular app if its China-based parent company ByteDance doesn’t divest from it was unveiled. It was introduced by Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), who are both the top lawmakers on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
“This is worth billions, it’s one of the most successful advertising platforms in social media today,” O’Leary continued. “All my companies use it, I’ll buy it.”
If the bill becomes law, ByteDance would have more than five months to divest from TikTok. If it does not do that, the platform will become illegal to distribute on an app store or web housing platform in the U.S.
“This bill is an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it. This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs,” TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek told The Hill.
Last year, a Republican-supported bill that tried to ban TikTok tried to ban the app completely faced criticism from Democrats over how it could possibly encroach on free speech.
President Biden said he will sign the bill if it makes it through Congress Friday.
“If they pass it, I’ll sign it,” Biden told reporters Friday.
