TikTok says report of potential sale to Elon Musk ‘pure fiction’ | Technology

The video-sharing platform is denying claims that the Chinese government is considering selling it to a tech billionaire.

TikTok has dismissed as “pure fiction” a report that claimed the Chinese government was considering selling the platform to Elon Musk to avoid a US ban.

Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that Chinese officials are in preliminary talks about a potential sale to avoid a ban that is scheduled to take effect if China-based owner ByteDance does not sell the U.S. operation by Jan. 19.

The report, which cited unnamed people familiar with the matter, said one of the scenarios being discussed would be to integrate TikTok into Musk’s social media platform X.

Bloomberg said it was unclear how Musk, the world’s richest man, with an estimated worth of more than $400 billion, would handle 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 U.S. Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of the impending ban after TikTok filed a lawsuit against the Foreign Enemies Controlled Applications Protection Act.

During oral arguments on Friday, the court seemed inclined to uphold the ban, with a majority of justices disbelieving TikTok’s argument that forcing the sale would violate the US Constitution’s First Amendment, which protects free speech.

Outgoing President Joe Biden signed the TikTok bill into law in April amid bipartisan concerns about alleged national security risks.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers have expressed concern that the platform could be used to capture Americans’ personal information and manipulate public debate.

Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on January 20, promised to “save” the platform during his presidential campaign, backing away from an attempt to ban the app during his first term.