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.
To read the full article, visit the USA TODAY website here.