TikTok Dismisses Report of Elon Musk Sale as ‘Pure Fiction’
A Monday report in Bloomberg that Chinese-owned TikTok is considering selling to Elon Musk is “pure fiction,” a rep for the social media platform told TheWrap.
TikTok is facing a ban in the U.S. unless it’s sold to a U.S.-owned company. Parent company Bytedance is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court not to follow through with the ban.
The app, which is used by 170 million Americans, is set to be removed from the U.S. on Jan. 19. A rep for the popular app if the Supreme Court does not overturn its ban by then, TikTok will shut it down rather than make a last-minute deal to keep it active in the U.S.
“At least as I understand it, we go dark,” TikTok attorney Noel Francisco said on Friday. “Essentially the platform shuts down.”
TikTok previously stated in court filings in December that it planned to completely exit the U.S. if its ban is not canceled at the last minute.
Last April, President Joe Biden signed a law that called for TikTok to be banned unless ByteDance, the app’s Beijing-based parent company, sold its American operation.
U.S. lawmakers have expressed concern TikTok could double as a spyware app for the Chinese government; TikTok, per Chinese law, is required to share user data with China’s communist government, if asked to do so.
Musk bought Twitter in October 2022 and rebranded it as X in July 2023. He took the company private, going on to radically change the platform’s user verification system and its algorithms and to actively promote Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. He has since been named to the newly created DOGE — Department of Government Efficiency — in Trump’s cabinet.
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