ByteDance, the parent company of social media platform TikTok has denied the reports on the potential sale of the app to billionaire and Tesla boss Elon Musk to continue its operations amid a possible ban by the US government.
Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Chinese officials have discussed allowing the sale to the Tesla and SpaceX CEO to avoid a ban scheduled to take effect on Sunday unless China-based owner ByteDance sells off TikTok’s US operations.
Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that Beijing officials strongly prefer that TikTok remains under the ownership of parent ByteDance Ltd., and the company is contesting the impending ban with an appeal to the US Supreme Court.
Although Musk is currently ranked as the world’s wealthiest person, Bloomberg said it was not clear how Musk could execute the transaction, or if he would need to sell other assets.
The US government passed a law last year that requires TikTok’s ByteDance to either sell the wildly popular platform or shut it down. It goes into effect Sunday — a day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The US government alleges TikTok allows Beijing to collect data and spy on users and is a conduit to spread propaganda. China and ByteDance strongly deny the claims.
TikTok has challenged the law, taking an appeal all the way to the US Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on Friday.
At the hearing, a majority of the conservative and liberal justices on the nine-member bench appeared skeptical of arguments by a lawyer for TikTok that forcing a sale was a violation of First Amendment free speech rights.
Bloomberg characterized Beijing’s consideration of a possible Musk transaction as “still preliminary,” noting that Chinese officials have yet to reach a consensus on how to proceed.
It said it was not clear how much ByteDance knew of the Chinese government planning.
TikTok did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment, but a representative was cited by Variety as saying: “We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction.”
Musk is a close ally to Trump who is expected to play an influential role in Washington in the coming four years.