Will Musk buy the TikTok video network? The Chinese company says it is "pure fiction"

The social media platform TikTok He said preliminary talks for China to involve Elon Musk as possible buyer of its US operations They are “pure fiction.” TikTok denied Bloomberg’s original report in a comment to the BBC. “We cannot be expected to comment on pure fiction,” a TikTok spokesperson told the British media outlet. ‘Euronews’ has also contacted TikTok for a response.

TikTok faces ban on January 19

The event occurs when the popular application, used by 170 million Americansfaces a ban on January 19 in the US, as Supreme Court justices must rule on a law for TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell its US operations or cease operations in the country.

In December, the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump urged the Supreme Court to postpone its decision on TikTok until his inauguration, on January 20, to give him time to seek a resolution. As the BBC also reported, Trump’s request came a week after he met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in Florida. However, it is not clear whether any of the US justices will choose this route.

Threat to national security

The January 19 decision was the culmination of a long saga in Washington over TikTokthat The Government considers a threat to national security due to its connections with China. US officials have argued that the huge amounts of user data that TikTok collects, including sensitive information about viewing habits, could fall into the hands of the Chinese government through coercion.

As Euronews previously reported, they are also concerned that the proprietary algorithm that powers what users see on the app is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who could pressure ByteDance to shape the platform’s content. a difficult way to detect. However, TikTok has long denied that it can be used as a tool of Beijing.