Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is leading a bid to acquire the social media platform TikTok from ByteDance. This move has sparked a wide range of reactions, highlighting potential conflicts of interest and accusations of corruption due to Mnuchin's political connections and the involvement of significant U.S. investment firms like Carlyle Group, KKR, GGV, Sequoia, and Tiger Global in ByteDance. Critics argue that the bid, if successful, could lead to censorship issues, comparing potential future management to the control seen in other major social media platforms. Meanwhile, China has criticized the U.S. push to force the sale of TikTok, calling it 'Robber’s Logic.'