US President Donald Trump says that technology company Microsoft is in talks to buy the video platform TikTok, and that he would like to see a bidding war for the Chinese app.
Trump has previously said he has had conversations with several people about buying TikTok, including X owner Elon Musk, who is one of Trump’s supporters.
The TikTok app, which has around 170 million US users, was briefly shut down earlier in January after the US Supreme Court upheld a ban on TikTok on January 19.
The ban comes after the parent company failed to sell the popular app by January 19th.
The reason for the ban was allegations that China could use TikTok as a tool for spying. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has denied this.
Microsoft is one of the world’s largest technology companies founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.