Today marks one year since Project Liberty announced The People’s Bid for TikTok, a broad consortium of technologists, investors, community leaders, parents and creators working together to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations, without its algorithm. A reimagined TikTok would rely on a cutting-edge decentralized infrastructure that keeps an individual’s data secure and gives people complete control over their digital lives.
Last year, when the federal government mandated that parent-company ByteDance divest TikTok’s U.S. operations or face a ban, Project Liberty saw a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help Americans reclaim a voice, choice and stake in the future of the web. We set out to acquire TikTok to reimagine the app and the internet more broadly as a beacon of data empowerment and digital sovereignty.
TikTok, with its 170 million American users, is a microcosm of the modern internet. Its invasive data collection practices don’t just present a pressing national security risk to the U.S.; they also power toxic and addictive algorithms that, according to experts like social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, endanger our mental health and stunt our children’s social and emotional development.
This status quo was not inevitable: it resulted from years of opaque decisions and profit incentives from Big Tech’s broken business model. This model puts profits and platforms over people. Therefore, at the heart of the ban-or-sell debate is a larger question: what kind of digital world will we — can we — leave behind for our children?
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