Chinese government officials have reportedly discussed a scenario where ByteDance sells the US arm of TikTok to Elon Musk, should the Supreme Court uphold the law banning the app on January 19.
Bloomberg reports that China would strongly prefer that TikTok remain under ByteDance’s ownership, but says government officials have considered a sale to Musk as part of a broader plan to work with the administration of incoming President Donald Trump. In that scenario, Musk’s X would acquire TikTok US, effectively absorbing the vertical video platform’s 170 million US users and billions in potential ad revenue.
A TikTok spokesperson called the report “pure fiction” in a statement to Variety.
The report says it’s unclear how much ByteDance and TikTok know about China’s discussions about selling Musk, potentially highlighting China’s alleged influence over the platform that brought about the law in the first place.
