Frank McCourt, civic entrepreneur, CEO of McCourt Global and founder of Project Liberty, speaks at The Wall Street Journal's Future of Everything Festival in New York City on May 22, 2024.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
Frank McCourt said his Freedom Project Union, which He made a bid to buy TikTokwould be comfortable sharing ownership of the app as long as it was hosted on technology developed by his non-profit.
“I agree with everything that is legal… and the American government agrees with that,” McCourt told CNBC in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
McCourt's comments come after President Donald Trump He said last week He would like the US to have a “50% joint venture ownership” in TikTok.
Supreme Court last week I upheld the law Asking ByteDance to give up its ownership of TikTok or Face Effective ban. Since TikTok was not sold by the Sunday deadline set by the law, the app was shut down for US users and also removed from the Apple and Google app stores. But TikTok Some services began to be restored on Sunday After Trump said he would sign an executive order to postpone the federal ban on the app, which he did on Monday.
The executive order allows TikTok to continue operating for another 75 days.
With all the twists and turns, McCourt said he is open to any business deal, including a 50% stake rather than full ownership.
“I'm not going to be the decision maker there. You know, that's President Trump's deal now and it's in his … administration, and you know, everything will be resolved,” McCourt said.
“We're not flexible about the values and principles of the Freedom Project, are we?” He added. “We are completely flexible about commercial arrangements, as long as they adhere to the law.”
McCourt's condition is that TikTok must run on a technology called Decentralized Social Networking Protocol, or DSNP, which is overseen by the Project Liberty Institute, the nonprofit founded by the billionaire.
Focus on user data
McCourt has been critical of the way social media and internet companies collect user data and target them with ads. This current model, where the user has little control over their own data, needs to change, he said.
The DSNP is focused on making these changes. The protocol is a technology that third-party developers can build applications on, but users can choose how their data is used and who has access to it.
If they don't like a particular application, they can migrate their content and data to another DSNP-based service.
McCourt's goal is to buy TikTok and put it on DSNP.
“The user experience will be very similar, with one big exception, which is that owning your identity, data and relationships will be very different from the way Tiktok currently works,” McCourt said.
“So, if Project Liberty, or someone else, buys the US Tiktok app and does a bad job, the underlying technology will allow the entire user base to move to a different app that does a better job,” he added.
Project Liberty has made a bid to buy TikTok without its underlying algorithm.
McCourt said Project Liberty is “not interested in the Chinese algorithm or technology,” though he acknowledged that TikTok is “worth less” without the algorithm. Many experts have said that TikTok's success is due in large part to its algorithm, which keeps users addicted to the app.
Other buyers are hovering
It is not clear whether ByteDance will sell TikTok or whether China will approve any type of sale of the app in the United States.
Project Liberty is organizing a takeover bid for TikTok with a consortium of other investors. It's called The People's Bid to Buy TikTok, but there are other potential buyers swirling around.
Trump said on Tuesday that he would consider the possibility Tesla CEO Elon Musk or oracle president Larry Ellison Buy TikTok. Comments are coming a report The Chinese government has considered a plan that would involve Musk acquiring the operations.
YouTube star MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is preparing with a group of investors to make a bid for TikTok, his lawyer confirmed this week to various media outlets.
— CNBC's Jonathan Vanian, Hakyung Kim and Laura Kolodny contributed to this report.
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