US President-elect Donald Trump, set to take office on January 20th, insinuated over the weekend that he is re-thinking the potential ban on TikTok. This is as billionaire US businessman Frank McCourt, a potential buyer for the social media app, could be stepping up to the plate.
The US is just weeks away from enacting a ban on the short video app – that is if the US Supreme Court does not intervene and grant TikTok a delay before Trump is sworn in.
US lawmakers in April, gave TikTok’s parent company, the Chinese-owned ByteDance, until January 19th to divest the app or face a ban across the nation. TikTok filed an emergency appeal last week.
Speaking to a crowd of supporters on Sunday in Arizona, Trump reiterated the accolades he bestowed upon TikTok last week, referring to the success his election campaign had on the app.
“I think we're going to have to start thinking because, you know, we did go on TikTok, and we had a great response with billions of views, billions and billions of views."
"They brought me a chart, and it was a record, and it was so beautiful to see, and as I looked at it, I said, 'Maybe we gotta keep this sucker around for a little while'," he said at AmericaFest in Pheonix, an annual conservative event by the Turning Point group.
Trump showed his first signs of TikTok fuzzies last Monday, meeting with the company’s CEO Shou Zi Chew, and further telling a crowd of reporters he had a "warm spot in his heart" for TikTok.
Trump's recent comments on TikTok Ban:
undefined Los Angeles Magazine (@LAmag) December 16, 2024
undefinedI have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points, and there are those that say TikTok had something to do with that.undefined pic.twitter.com/dFwHxzjnnw
Still, it's uncertain, even after taking office, how much sway Trump would have trying to interfere with the TikTok ‘divest or ban’ bill passed overwhelmingly by the US Senate in April over national security concerns.
Former LA Dodgers owner courts ByteDance
Meanwhile, US billionaire and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, officially threw his hat into the ring on Friday, as TikTok’s first potential bidder.
McCourt, who had originally spoken of his interest in buying TikTok back in May, said at the time he would “rearchitect the platform to put people in control of their digital identities and data” to create a more open, inclusive, and responsible internet.
The billionaire businessman, who had been organizing a bid since then through his open data advocacy alliance, Project Liberty, told Reuters this week that he is already in "preliminary conversations" with members of Trump's incoming administration and had received verbal funding commitments totaling $20 billion from a consortium of investors.
Big visions for a newly acquired TikTok would include, migrating the app’s technology onto an open-source protocol using Project Liberty, and revamping TikTok’s current advertising mode – both of which would give users more control over their data and content they see.
McCourt said he fully anticipates the ban going through, leaving ByteDance no other option than to divest.
Following the Supreme Court’s announcement today that it will hear TikTok’s case seeking to strike down the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, Frank McCourt, Founder of Project Liberty, released the following statement: pic.twitter.com/MauulztnV7
undefined Project Liberty (@pro_jectliberty) December 18, 2024
Still, there are challenges to the plan, primarily whether ByteDance would even agree to sell TikTok, as the Chinese tech company has repeatedly said it would not sell off its American assets.
As for who would run the company, McCourt said his team was currently in talks with several candidates, including TikTok’s former Chief Operating Officer V. Pappas, one inside source has said.
"This is both a big project to scale the technology that we've built, but it is also a vision for a better internet. We're talking to people who share that vision and have the capacity and skills to do both," McCourt said.
McCourt also spoke of creating a revenue stream by licensing users’ data (with consent) in exchange for compensation, “flipping this 180 degrees and giving the user the power," he said, adding that. any sale would exclude TikTok’s infamous algorithm.
Besides Project Liberty, the Massachusetts-born mogul is currently executive chairman and former CEO of McCourt Global and owner of the Marseille professional football club in France.
TikTok filed an emergency appeal in federal courts on December 17th citing the ban would violate its free speech rights. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear TikTok's arguments on January 10th. President Joe Biden has the power to grant ByteDance a 90-day extension.
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