The video-sharing platform is rejecting a report claiming the Chinese government is considering a sale to the tech billionaire.
TikTok has dismissed as “pure fiction” a report claiming the Chinese government is considering selling the platform to Elon Musk to avoid a ban in the United States.
Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday that Chinese officials are in preliminary talks about a potential sale to avoid a ban that is set to take effect if Chinese owner ByteDance fails to sell its U.S. operations by Jan. 19.
The report, which cited unnamed people familiar with the matter, said one scenario being discussed would involve TikTok merging into Musk’s X social media platform.
Bloomberg said it was unclear how Musk, the world’s richest person estimated to be worth more than $400 billion, would implement the transaction or whether he would have to sell some of his other assets to complete any sale.
TikTok did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment, but a spokesperson was quoted as telling the BBC, HuffPost and Variety: “We cannot be expected to comment on pure fiction.”
The US Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of the threatened ban after TikTok filed a legal challenge against the related Protecting Americans from Foreign Enemy Controlled Apps Act.
During oral arguments on Friday, the court seemed inclined to uphold the ban, with most of the justices seemingly unconvinced by TikTok’s argument that forced sales would violate the US Constitution’s First Amendment, which supports free speech.
Outgoing President Joe Biden signed the TikTok bill into law in April amid bipartisan concerns over alleged national security risks.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers have expressed concern that the platform could be used to harvest Americans’ personal information and manipulate public discourse.
President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to be inaugurated on January 20, promised to “save” the platform during his presidential campaign, a reversal of his attempt to ban the app during his first term.
