Mark Cuban says he would support an alternative to TikTok built on Bluesky’s protocol

If TikTok bites the dust (as it is expected to happen on sunday), billionaire Mark Cuban says he’d be willing to fund an alternative video-sharing platform that’s built on the protocol developed by microblogging site Bluesky.

Ever since outgoing President Joe Biden signed an order demanding that TikTok sell its platform to the U.S. or risk a nationwide ban, there was a lot of anticipation about what could fill the void if the app did indeed exit the country. A lot of people would like to buy the original app from ByteDance, its Chinese parent company. ByteDance has repeatedly said it is not for sale. Now, Cuban has come up with an alternative version of the video sharing app that could be much better for everyone in the long run.

Cuban shared the idea in video on TikTok posted on his account on Tuesday. “There’s an app called Bluesky and it’s built on the AT protocol,” Cuban said. “I would be willing to invest in supporting anyone – or anyone – creating a TikTok replacement built on top of the AT protocol. So if you have that ability, let me know in the comments,” Cuban said. “If you build an MVP — a minimum viable product — so I can see it, that’s even better, because obviously I think you’re going to have a lot of support,” Cuban said.

It is unknown if Cuban will actually follow through with such an investment, although the idea is intriguing. The appeal of Bluesky is that it is a ostensibly “decentralized” social media platform, as it allows users to host their data on servers other than those owned by the company. While most decentralized web users not counting Bluesky as an official part of Fediverseand others claim that the site is only “cosplaying” in decentralizationthe site has some benefits that you can’t get on a site like X or Facebook. Its AT protocol is a unified protocol that allows users to build their own interoperable applications and servers while maintaining connections to Bluesky’s user base. In this sense, it allows users more autonomy than other sites.

Bluesky tried to present himself as the antidote to X— the previously popular microblogging site that crazy tech billionaire Elon Musk has since had converted in his own private propaganda apparatus. The platform was created by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey in 2019. like a Twitter side projectthen spun off into its own company when Musk took over Twitter. Since then, Dorsey has the roads parted with the platform, but the site has continued to grow. A recent study claimed that so-called “Twitter quitters” had helped grow Bluesky’s user base to more than 27 million people (by comparison, X has approx 250 million users daily).

While the idea of ​​a TikTok-style site that functions more or less like Bluesky is cool, it’s unclear whether the American TikTok app will actually die. The company is doing everything it can to woo President-elect Donald Trump in hopes of getting a last-minute reprieve. On Thursday was reported that TikTok CEO Shou Chew will attend Trump’s inauguration. Trump also said that it is considering an executive order to save the platform.