Popular YouTuber MrBeast claimed he has an "offer ready" to buy TikTok ahead of the potential U.S. ban of the popular app depending on the Supreme Court's decision on whether or not to uphold the bipartisan law signed by Democratic President Joe Biden.
Calls to shut down the popular short-form video app in the U.S. increased amid national security concerns that a foreign party could allegedly control the platform and compromise the data of the 170 million users who rely on the app to promote businesses and maintain influencer relevance to generate income.
With the impending shutdown of TikTok approaching on January 19 unless SCOTUS grants an injunction to block the federal law banning it, YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson—AKA MrBeast—posted a video on the app suggesting he was prepared to take ownership of it.
Donaldson has over 340 million YouTube subscribers, the most of any channels on the platform, and he is the third most followed content creator on TikTok with over 106.9 million followers.
In 2022, his estimated net worth was believed to be $500 million.
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"I just got out of a meeting with a bunch of billionaires. TikTok, we mean business," he says in the video as a man presenting contracts in an open suitcase stands next to him.
Donaldson continues:
"This is my lawyer right here, we have an offer already for you."
The short clip concludes with him saying:
"We wanna buy the platform, America deserves TikTok. Give me a seat at the table, let me save this platform TikTok."
Here is the video.
@mrbeast TikTok check your inbox 👀 @TikTok
Reactions to his proclamation were mixed.
Users were skeptical about his ability to purchase TikTok.
But, hey, whatever it takes to save TikTok, right?
Some TikTok creators anticipating the ban jumped on other similar short-form video apps as replacements, including Triller, Substack, and the most popular, RedNote, a social networking and e-commerce platform from China.
So many so-called "TikTok refugees" have migrated to RedNote that it's triggered a sudden spike in users learning Mandarin on Duolingo to optimize their engagement on the replacement video-sharing platform.
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