TikTok Denies Reports It’s in Talks to Sell to Musk

TikTok denial: “We cannot be expected to comment on pure fiction,” a TikTok spokesperson told Caixin on Tuesday. The no-comment comment was in response to questions about news reports that Elon Musk might buy TikTok’s U.S. operations. Sources close to TikTok said the company had not discussed a potential sale with Musk. The hubbub came as the U.S.-mandated Jan. 19 deadline approaches for ByteDance Ltd. to either sell or shutter TikTok’s U.S. operations. With the day approaching, some of the app’s American users are flocking to competing Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. The trend has seen Xiaohongshu — known as Rednote in English — become the most downloaded free app on Apple’s U.S. App Store.