Multibillionaire Elon Musk, an ally of US President Donald Trump, has said he is not interested in buying TikTok, a social network that the United States is trying to ban due to an alleged security threat from its Chinese owners.
Musk's statement from late January was published on the website of the WELT Group, part of the German media corporation Aksel Springer SE, which hosted the event, which was attended by the owner of Tesla, SpaceX and X.
"I didn't make an offer for TikTok," Musk said, seven days after Trump indicated he was open to Musk taking over the app, owned by China's ByteDance.
He said he has no plans for what to do with TikTok and added that he personally does not use the application and is not familiar with its format, Hina reports.
"I'm not at all eager to take over TikTok, I don't usually take over companies, it's very rare," Musk continued, calling his takeover of the former Twitter unusual.
He said that as a rule, he builds companies from the ground up.
Trump signed an executive order seeking a delay in banning the popular app, which was set to be blocked in the United States on January 19.
ByteDance was given a deadline in January to sell TikTok's U.S. assets or face a ban. U.S. lawmakers are concerned that the app poses a national security threat because Chinese authorities could force it to share data on American citizens.
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