Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, praised U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump's decision not to ban the Chinese social media app TikTok. Musk argued that banning TikTok would go against freedom of speech. However, he pointed out a contradiction, noting that while TikTok is allowed in the U.S., the social media platform X is banned in China.

In a post on X, he said, "I have been against a TikTok ban for a long time, because it goes against freedom of speech. That said, the current situation where TikTok is allowed to operate in America, but X is not allowed to operate in China is unbalanced. Something needs to change." Musk had resisted the TikTok ban earlier on April 19, despite his claims that X would have benefited from it. "In my opinion, TikTok should not be banned in the USA, even though such a ban may benefit the X platform. Doing so would be contrary to freedom of speech and expression. It is not what America stands for."

President-elect Donald Trump stated earlier in the day that in order to "save" American jobs and keep "our business" from moving to the communist country, he agreed to "approve" TikTok on the stipulation that the United States own 50% of the Chinese app. Earlier, the Chinese short-form video service app thanked Trump for "providing the necessary clarity and assurance," and said it is currently working to restore service in the US after Trump promised to bring back access to TikTok, which had stopped working in the US on Saturday night in order to comply with the ban order issued by the Biden administration. 

Speaking at the Capitol One Arena at the Make America Great Again (MAGA) Victory Rally, Trump said, "We need to save TikTok because we have to save a lot of jobs. We don't want to give our business to China... I agreed to approve TikTok on the condition that the USA will own 50 per cent of TikTok..."Further, he also highlighted the impact of his leadership, referring to it as the "Trump Effect," which he said has led to unexpected results even before taking office. "Before even taking office, you are seeing results no one expected to see. Everyone is calling it the 'Trump Effect.' It's you. You are the effect," Trump told rally attendees."We are going to restore patriotism to our schools, get radical left and woke ideologies out of our military and government. We are going to Make America Great Again," he added.