I’m genuinely so tired of writing about MrBeast. Jimmy Donaldson has been ever-present in the news cycle for the past six months. It started after his second-in-command Ava Tyson stepped down from the company following allegations of sexual misconduct.
Since then, I’ve covered stories both mundane. Allegations that his lunch snack brand Lunchly, contained mold, and more serious like claims his Beast Games television show mistreated contestants and crewmembers. The one thing that I’ll give Donaldson is that he knows how to stay in the spotlight. He has a gift for spinning the news cycle to focus on his philanthropy instead of the controversy.
So just six days before TikTok was set to be banned on Jan. 19, Donaldson decided to tweet “Okay fine, I’ll buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned.” The US government has commanded TikTok’s owner ByteDance either sell the app or shut it down in the country.
But ByteDance has said multiple times that they’d rather shut down than sell. Keeping their propriety data and customer base away from other companies is more important than a simple sale.
Billionaires Gather To Try And Buy TikTok
Just one day after he tweeted, Donaldson pondered on X “Unironically I’ve had so many billionaires reach out to me since I tweeted this, let’s see if we can pull this off.” On TikTok, his video with an offer to buy TikTok in a briefcase that’s been watched over 272 million times.
TikTok went down for about 16 hours on Jan. 19. President Trump has since signed an executive order to delay the ban of the app for 75 days. It’s still unclear if Trump can even override this federal law.
This bit of time has allowed the billionaire class time to plan a formal bid on TikTok. They may succeed in taking control of my favorite app for influencer drama and recipes.
Billionaire Jesse Tinsley announced on that along with Donaldson and Employees.com, they “officially submitted a compelling all-cash offer to ByteDance to keep TikTok in the U.S.” Donaldson elaborated on his X account that he was “reached out” to help the “leading groups who are all credible.”
According to journalist Ken Klippenstein, the “bid was structured by attorney Brad Bondi.” Bondi just so happens to be the brother of Pam Bondi, a Trump nominee for Attorney General. The TikTok ban is being overseen by the Department of Justice which is overseen by the Attorney General.
Should MrBeast Buy TikTok?
I personally don’t think it’s the best idea to have a bunch of tech oligarchs in charge of social media platforms. X and Meta used to be more tolerable when they were just Twitter and Facebook respectively.
Now they are overrun with misinformation and conspiracy theories, with users stuck fact-checking what is on the platform. TikTok isn’t perfect and has already started to cozy up to Trump, but I don’t think it will be better in the hands of a YouTuber and his uber-rich chums.
Right now it’s still possible for MrBeast’s billionaire buds bid bid to win TikTok, but I don’t think its super likely. I still think ByteDance would rather take their lucrative e-commerce and video platform and just go home.
