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Chinese officials have reportedly held preliminary talks about a potential option to sell TikTok’s operations in the US to the billionaire Elon Musk, should the short-video app be unable to avoid an impending ban.
Beijing officials prefer that TikTok remains under the control of Chinese parent Bytedance, but have discussed other options including a sale to Musk, Bloomberg reported.
“We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction,” a TikTok spokesperson said, responding to the report. The company has repeatedly said it will not sell its US operation.
TikTok’s endless video feed has rapidly won a place as one of the world’s biggest social networks. It first overtook Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube in terms of app downloads in 2018, and it has since become one of the most used apps in the US, with 170 million users.
However, the social network’s rise has caused alarm in some quarters in the US, with politicians concerned that China’s Communist party could exert influence over the app’s owners.
The US House of Representatives in April passed a bill that would require ByteDance to sell the platform or face a total US ban.
Last week, the supreme court seemed inclined to uphold the law enforcing a sale or ban of TikTok in the US by 19 January.
TikTok’s US operations could either be sold through a competitive process or an arrangement by the government, the Bloomberg report said, suggesting that the future of the app is no longer solely in ByteDance’s control.
China’s government has a “golden share” in ByteDance, which several members of Congress have said gives the government power over TikTok. —The Guardian.
Online Reporter