Jan. 9 (UPI) — Billionaire Frank McCourt, the former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, said he is leading a group of backers to make a bid for the video social media site TikTok just days before a deadline the Chinese company faces to sell to an American buyer or be banned.
McCourt, the founder of Project Liberty, said his partners, called The People’s Bid for TikTok, will redesign the app to operate on a U.S.-owned platform to meet government requirements.
The wildly popular social media website, owned by Chinese-based ByteDance, faces a deadline in less than two weeks to be sold because U.S. lawmakers consider it a national security risk.
“We’ve put forward a proposal to ByteDance to realize Project Liberty’s vision for a reimagined TikTok — one built on an American-made tech stack that puts people first,” McCourt said in a statement.
“By keeping the platform alive without relying on the current TikTok algorithms and avoiding a ban, millions of Americans can continue to enjoy the platform. We look forward to working with ByteDance, President-elect Trump, and the incoming administration to get this deal done.”
A Project Liberty spokesperson declined to release the financial terms for the offer but said the proposal has been received by ByteDance.
Project Liberty started in 2019 and launched in 2021 by McCourt and is supported by a $500,000 commitment.
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments on whether the government’s ban of the app is constitutional, just days before the Jan. 19 deadline to ban it if the platform is not sold to an American firm.
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