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TikTok has called a report that China is considering selling the social media company’s US operations to Elon Musk “pure fiction”.
The firm’s comments came in response to a Bloomberg report that Chinese officials were considering selling its American business to the world’s richest man if the US Supreme Court upheld the ban on the app.
Supreme Court justices are expected to rule on the law, which sets a Jan. 19 deadline for TikTok to either sell its US operations or face a ban in the country.
TikTok has repeatedly stated that it will not sell its operations in the United States.
“We shouldn’t be expected to comment on pure fiction,” a TikTok spokesperson told BBC News.
Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that one possible scenario being considered by Chinese officials would involve Musk’s social media platform X taking control of TikTok’s U.S. operations.
Musk is a close ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to return to the White House on January 20.
Last month, Trump urged the Supreme Court to delay its decision until after he takes office to allow him to seek a “political solution.”
His lawyer filed a legal statement in court saying that Trump “opposes the ban on TikTok” and “seeks to address existing issues through political means when he takes office.”
This comes a week after Trump met with TikTok CEO Shaw Zi-Chu at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
The Biden administration has argued that without the sale, TikTok could be used by China as a tool for espionage and political manipulation.
The company has repeatedly denied any influence from the Chinese Communist Party and has said the law to ban it in the US violates users’ rights to free speech enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution.
