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TikTok has rejected claims that its US business could be sold to Elon Musk.
The platform’s statement comes in response to a Bloomberg report on Monday, which said Chinese officials were considering selling its US business to Elon Musk should they fail to convince the Supreme Court to overturn the ban.
"We can't be expected to comment on pure fiction," a TikTok spokesperson told Variety.
TikTok is awaiting a final ruling from the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments regarding the ban’s potential violation of the First Amendment on Jan. 10. According to Bloomberg, the justices signaled they would likely uphold the ban, set to take effect on Jan. 19.
The ban resulted from a law signed by President Biden in April last year, which allowed the US government to block foreign-owned apps that posed a risk to national security. TikTok has until Jan. 19 to find a new owner for its American vertical or risk being eliminated from app stores in the US. TikTok has instead challenged the law in court.
Bloomberg says selling the business to Musk is part of contingency plans considered by some senior Chinese officials. One scenario involved Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, taking over TikTok US and running the business in partnership with ByteDance.
Notably, Musk is a close aide to President-elect Donald Trump, who last month requested the Supreme Court pause the ban so that he could “resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.”