Former Trump Official Suggests Buying TikTok

Former Trump administration Transportation Secretary Steven Mnuchin is reportedly organizing an investor group to purchase social media platform TikTok.

The news comes as the House of Representatives passed a bill that bans TikTok unless Chinese parent company ByteDance sells the social media platform to an American company.

Some members of Congress have raised concerns that banning the app may threaten free speech or empower big tech companies like Facebook and Google to censure more content, while others have focused on eliminating the national security threat presented by TikTok.

“I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold,” Mnuchin told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok,” he explained. “This should be owned by U.S. businesses. There’s no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China.”