Billionaire Frank McCourt may try to buy TikTok
By: Greta Cross
USA Today
..... With less than one moth until TikTok could be banned in the United States, a billionaire is tossing his hat into the ring as a potential buyer.
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Frank McCourt, founder of Project Liberty and executive chairman of McCourt Global, announced last week [12/18/2024] that he is building a group of associates to purchase TikTok in order to prevent a ban of the platform in the U.S.
..... In April, [2024] President Joe Biden signed legislation that would ban TikTok on January 19 [2025] if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance does not sell it. the legislation has been in the works for several years, as government officials fear that TikTok may be sharing American data with the Chinese government.
..... Led by Project liberty, McCourt's consortium has been deemed "People's Bid For TikTok," which wants to allow users the opportunity to access and manage their won data. McCourt claims he has received verbal commitments totaling up to 420 billion for the purchase, according to the Project Liberty website.
..... If Project Liberty acquired TikTok, it would only be the U.S. portion of the platform and would not include TikTok's algorithm, which China sees as its intellectual property, McCount told CBS' "Face the Nation" earlier this month. [12/2024] Additionally, china has been vocal in the past about its opposition to seeking the app entirely.
..... Neither Project Liberty nor TikTok immediately responded to USA Today's request for comment on Monday. [12/23/2024]
..... On December18, [2024] the Supreme Court agreed to hear TikTok's challenge to the legislation. The platform and ByteDance must persuade the court to overturn a lower court's decisions that the national security risk of TikTok outweigh the law's infringement of free speech rights.
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The high court will hear oral arguments from TikTok on January 10. [2025] If the Supreme Court upholds the legislation and/or Project Liberty is unable to purchase TikTok before January 19, [2025] the platform will be banned from distribution in the United States.
..... If TikTok is banned The Apple App Store and Google Play Store would be prohibited form distributing the app for download. it also would be illegal for Internet service providers in the U.S. to host TikTok.
..... McCourt, 71, is a former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. As executive chairman of McCourt Global, which dates back to roots in Boston in the late 1890s, McCourt has invested in real estate, sports, tech and media, according to Forbes.
..... In January 2023, McCourt founded Project liberty through a $500 million investment.
..... Project Liberty is an initiative to decentralize the Internet.
..... "The Internet is broken and it's urgent that we fix it," a statement from McCourt say on the Project Liberty website. "The institutions and ideals we cherish most are being destroyed for use of free apps hat steal our personal data and digital identities."
..... McCourt's goal is to stitch together technologists, academics, policymakers and everyday Internet users to build a 'better Internet, where the data is ours to manage, the platforms are our to govern and the power a is ours to reclaim," per the Project Liberty website.