TikTok Labels Report of Possible Sale to Musk “Pure Fiction”

Tue Jan 14 2025
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Key points

  • Bloomberg had claimed TikTok’s sale to Musk’s X
  • TikTok rejects Bloomberg’s report
  • Supreme Court seems poised to uphold ban

ISLAMABAD: TikTok has labelled the report that China is mulling over allowing a sale of the social media company’s US operations to Elon Musk “pure fiction.”

According to BBC, the firm gave its comments in response to a report by Bloomberg which claimed that Chinese officials are thinking over an option that they could see its business in America being sold to the world’s richest person in case the US Supreme Court maintains a ban on the app.

Supreme Court justices are supposed to decide on a law that sets a 19 January deadline for TikTok. The company has to either sell its US operations or face a ban.

The Chinese-based company has repeatedly denied selling its US operations.

TikTok’s reply

“We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction,” a TikTok spokesperson told BBC News.

Bloomberg said in its report that one possible case being considered by Chinese officials would see Musk’s X social media platform taking control of TikTok’s US operations.

Musk is a close ally of US president-elect.

Donald Trump is set to return to the White House on 20 January and Musk is his close ally.

Trump, last month, urged the Supreme Court to postpone its decision till he takes office to empower him to seek a “political resolution”.

His lawyer, in this regard, filed a legal document with the court which says Trump “opposes banning TikTok” and “seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office”.

Trump’s meeting

It came a week after Trump met Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s chief executive, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Two Democratic lawmakers, on Monday, Senator Edward Markey and Representative Ro Khanna, also urged Congress and President Joe Biden to extend the 19 January threshold.

However, in a Supreme Court hearing the previous week, judges appeared posed to uphold the legislation and attached to the already set deadline.

The nine justices, during nearly three hours of session, came back time and again to the national security issues that gave rise to the law.

The Biden administration has said that without a sale, TikTok could be used as a tool by China for spying and political manoeuvring.

On the other hand, the company has constantly denied any influence by the Chinese Communist Party.

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