Bloomberg News says preliminary talks have taken place but TikTok spokesperson rejects report as ‘pure fiction’

Chinese officials are in preliminary talks about a potential option to sell TikTok’s operations in the United States to billionaire Elon Musk, should the short-video app be unable to avoid an impending ban, Bloomberg News reported on Monday.

Beijing officials prefer that TikTok remains under the control of parent Bytedance, the report said, citing sources.