Will ByteDance save the day? Frank McCourt says he’s going to sell TikTok in the United States

TikTok’s future in the United States is murkier than ever after a federal appeals court upheld a law last week that could force the app to sell its US operations or be banned as early as January 19. TikTok sued, claiming the law was against the First Amendment, but the justices agreed with the Department of Justice and said that the federal government has the authority to block a sale if it poses a risk to national security. For the past decade, US lawmakers have claimed that the China-based owner of TikTok could use the app to spy on Americans.

There is a personal project of McCourt that he seeks to bolster, so he is motivated to save TikTok. He has created a people’s bid through his Project Liberty initiative which brings together many groups that share his vision of a more open web. To achieve this, he’d apply Project Liberty’s Decentralized Social Networking Protocol, or DSNP, to TikTok. The protocol would allow for users to export over their friends and followers to a new TikTok. And after Friday’s court decision, McCourt is more confident than ever that his team will soon be running and possibly rebuilding the app.

Frank McCourt: Up until Friday, no one knew whether or not ByteDance would win. All of this suddenly became very real, didn’t it? On January 19 there is a date. We don’t know what ByteDance is going to do. We know that they’re going to appeal. It’s out of our control. But as far as shutting it down or selling, that’s also going to be up to them, and we just want to make sure they know that there’s a viable buyer interested in buying US TikTok without the algorithm.

When asked if Project Liberty could maintain TikTok without the beloved algorithm, McCourt said people don’t know what they don’t have until you show them.

While speaking with WIRED earlier this week, McCourt says he would keep some type of advertising on the app, as well as letting people choose their own recommendations.

One of the most prominent potential buyers is Frank McCourt, a real estate magnate and former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers who says that he has received at least $20 billion in pledges from investors to purchase the app. The sale would bolster McCourt’s existing technology initiative Project Liberty and the so-called decentralized social networking protocol it has developed. McCourt wants to incorporate the DSNP into TikTok and allow users to export their friends across other interoperable apps.