Will TikTok be banned? Billionaire Frank McCourt wants to buy the app. Here's what to know
With less than one month until TikTok could be banned in the United States, a billionaire is tossing his hat into the ring as a potential buyer.
Frank McCourt, founder of Project Liberty and executive chairman of McCourt Global, announced last week 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, President Joe Biden passed legislation that would ban TikTok on Jan. 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 own data. McCourt claims he has received verbal commitments totaling up to $20 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, McCourt told CBS' "Face the Nation" earlier this month. Additionally, China has been vocal in the past about its opposition to selling the app entirely.
Neither Project Liberty nor TikTok immediately responded to Paste BN's request for comment on Monday.
Who is Frank McCourt?
McCourt, 71, is a former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. As executive chairman of McCourt Global, which dates back to roots in Boston to the late 1890s, McCourt has invested in real estate, sports, tech and media, according to Forbes.
McCourt founded Project Liberty in 2021 through an initial $100 million investment, McCourt Global Communications Director Anna Feagan told Paste BN. He then upped his investment to $500 million in 2023.
What is Project Liberty?
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 says on the Project Liberty website. "The institutions and ideals we cherish most are being destroyed for use of free apps that 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 ours to govern and the power is ours to reclaim," per the Project Liberty website.
What's the latest TikTok ban update?
On Dec. 18 the Supreme Court agreed to hear TikTok's challenge to the legislation. The platform and ByteDance must convince the court to overturn a lower court's decision that the national security risks of TikTok outweigh the law's infringement of free speech rights.
The high court will hear oral arguments from TikTok on Jan. 10. If the Supreme Court upholds the legislation and/or Project Liberty is unable to purchase TikTok before Jan. 19, the platform will be banned from distribution in the United States.
The Apple App Store and Google Play Store will be prohibited from distributing the app for download and it will be illegal for U.S. internet service providers to host TikTok.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct when Project Liberty was founded by Frank McCourt.
Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at Paste BN. Follow her on X and Instagram @gretalcross. Story idea? Email her at gcross@gannett.com.