WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was open to billionaire Elon Musk buying social media app TikTok if the Tesla CEO wanted to do so.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

The short video app used by 170 million Americans was taken offline temporarily for users shortly before a law that said it must be sold by its Chinese owner ByteDance on national security grounds, or be banned, took effect on Sunday.

Bloomberg News reported last week that Chinese officials were in preliminary talks about a potential option to sell TikTok's operations in the United States to Musk, though the company has denied that.

Trump on Monday signed an executive order seeking to delay by 75 days the enforcement of the law that was put in place after U.S. officials warned that under Chinese parent company ByteDance, there was a risk of Americans' data being misused.

TikTok remained unavailable to download on Apple and Android devices in the United States on Tuesday afternoon.

KEY QUOTES

"I would be, if he wanted to buy it," Trump told reporters on Tuesday when asked if he was open to Musk buying the platform.

"I have met with owners of TikTok, the big owners," Trump added. "So, what I am thinking about saying to somebody is 'buy it and give half to the United States of America.'"

CONTEXT

Free speech advocates have opposed TikTok's ban under a law passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden.

The company says U.S. officials misstated its ties to China, arguing its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the United States on cloud servers operated by Oracle, while content moderation decisions that affect American users are also made in the U.S.

Musk, who spent more than $250 million to help Trump win November's presidential election, has said there was an "unbalanced" business environment between the U.S. and China.

"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," Musk, who owns social media platform X, said over the weekend.