Billionaire Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty bids for TikTok

Just 10 days before the US TikTok ban takes effect, businessman Frank McCourt’s internet advocacy nonprofit Freedom project It announced Thursday that it has submitted an offer to buy the social media site from Chinese tech company ByteDance.

Project Liberty and its partners, known as the “People’s Proposal for TikTok,” will restructure the app to exist on an American-owned platform and prioritize users’ digital security. statement.

“We pitched to ByteDance to realize Project Liberty’s vision for a reimagined TikTok built on an American-made tech stack that puts people first,” said Project Liberty founder McCourt. “By keeping the platform alive without relying on the current TikTok algorithm and avoiding a ban, millions of Americans can continue to enjoy the platform.”

A spokesperson for Project Liberty said the nonprofit did not disclose the financial terms of the offer, but confirmed that ByteDance received the offer.

CNBC has reached out to TikTok for comment.

The Supreme Court will give listen to oral arguments About the ban signed last April by President Joe Biden on Friday. ByteDance has repeatedly refused to sell TikTok and challenged the legislation on First Amendment grounds.

The case went through the court system. More recently, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia District ruled in favor of the law on December 6, writing that the government’s national security justifications for the ban were sufficiently persuasive.

On December 9 lawsuitTikTok said the ban would cost US small businesses and social media creators $1.3 billion in revenue and profits in just one month, with more than 7 million US users doing business on TikTok.

The ban, known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversaries Controlled Applications Act, prohibits the distribution and maintenance of software while it is under Chinese ownership.

The People’s Proposal for TikTok aims to move TikTok to an open-source platform that gives users more control over their data, as part of Project Liberty’s mission to build a more user-empowered internet.

The initiative is partnered with investment banking group Guggenheim Securities and law firm Kirkland & Ellis. Its backers include digital security advocates, investor Kevin O’Leary and World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee.