TikTok’s future in the US is unclear. We reconnect with the billionaire who wants to save him

TikTok is officially on the cutting blockfriends.

Last Friday, a federal appeals court upheld a law that could lead to the app being banned from operating in the United States next month. Even if President Joe Biden decides to extend that deadline by an additional 90 days, TikTok still has a pretty short window of time to find a way out of this mess.

Earlier this year I spoke with Frank McCourt for this newsletter about his offer to buy TikTok. After the events of last week, I thought it was a good time to contact him again. I also got some insight into how creators are preparing for a post-TikTok future.

Let’s talk about it.

At this point, there are three options for TikTok. The company can win an appeal, forget all about it, and go back to normal business (possibly). Next year, the app may be banned. Or someone with a lot of money could buy TikTok’s US business outside of ByteDance. Wednesday afternoon mate Zeyi Yang and I spoke with Frank McCourt, the billionaire former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who wants to do just that.

McCourt’s motivation is not just to save TikTok, but to support his own personal project. Through his Project Liberty initiative, he has done what he calls “the people’s bidding,” bringing together various investors and groups that share his vision for a more open network. To achieve this, it would apply Project Liberty’s Decentralized Social Network Protocol, or DSNP, to TikTok. The protocol will allow users to export their friends and followers to a new TikTok. And after Friday’s court ruling, McCourt is more confident than ever that his team will soon be up and running and possibly rebuilding the app.

In our conversation, McCourt argued that the sale would make everyone happy, including ByteDance, consumers and the US government. McCourt has held talks with potential investors totaling at least $20 billion in a potential bid for the app’s brand, its user base and existing content to scale its vision for an interoperable, more privacy-friendly Internet to compete with companies like Meta and Google. He doesn’t “need or want” the algorithm driving TikTok’s For You page, he says.

Asked if Project Liberty could sustain TikTok’s existing user base without the beloved algorithm, McCourt said, “People don’t know what they don’t have until you show them.”