According to TikTok, rumours that it would sell its US operations to Elon Musk, the owner of X, are “pure fiction,” reports Breaking News.
If it is unable to reverse an upcoming US ban, regulators in China, the country where TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is based, are considering a potential sale to the billionaire X owner, according to Bloomberg News.
However, a TikTok representative responded to the claims by saying, “We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction,” reports Breaking News.
Due to US national security concerns about China and what it perceives to be its potential influence on TikTok—something the firm has always denied—TikTok faces a ban in the US starting on January 19.
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ByteDance has been warned that the app may be banned in the US unless it sells TikTok’s US business, reports Breaking News.
According to the article, if the company is unable to stop the ban, Chinese officials are currently in early discussions about a possible sale to Mr. Musk.
It implied that the future of the app is no longer entirely in ByteDance’s hands by stating that the social media behemoth’s US operations may either be sold through a competitive procedure or through an agreement made by the Chinese government, reports Breaking News.
Although he takes office after the ban is scheduled to go into force, incoming US President Donald Trump has indicated that his government will prevent the restriction.
In order to give himself more time to negotiate a “political resolution,” he has demanded that the deadline be extended, reports Breaking News.
During a hearing on the matter last week, the US Supreme Court seemed inclined to uphold the ban, with justices seemingly convinced by arguments that the company’s ties to China pose a greater national security threat than worries about limiting the speech of TikTok or its 170 million US users.
Although ByteDance has previously stated that it will not sell the short-form video platform, several investors, including as billionaire businessman Frank McCourt and former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, have expressed interest in it, reports Breaking News.
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