Is TikTok Redeemable? Former Dodgers Owner Says Yes
Movieguide® Contributor
Former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt Jr. shared why he believes his organization, Project Liberty, can transform TikTok.
On Friday, a federal appeals court upheld the law requiring the sale or ban of TikTok in the U.S. McCourt’s Project Liberty is one of the contending bidders.
“The people should own a piece of this platform. They’re the ones creating the data and the value,” McCourt shared with Fox Business. “Project Liberty is about reimagining the internet in a way that allows individuals to reclaim their personhood from the machinery of Big Tech.”
Project Liberty has a $20 billion bid on the platform. He believes it has the lead on the bids, considering it doesn’t want “China’s algorithm” while other bidders do.
“We doubt very much that China would sell TikTok with the algorithm. We’re the one bidder that doesn’t want the algorithm,” he said. “We’re talking about a different architecture, a different way of thinking about the internet and how it operates” — what he calls “clean technology.”
READ MORE: WILL TIKTOK BE BANNED? WE’LL SOON FIND OUT.
Lawmakers and national security officials have warned that China could use TikTok to spy on and record over 170 million American users’ information and influence the public by suppressing or increasing certain content. However, McCourt believes the app Project Liberty will develop will be “free of Chinese fingerprints,” as Fox News Anchor Maria Bartiromo put it.
“The technology we are building respects individuals by returning to them ownership and control of their identity and their data, not by surveilling them,” the businessman said.
If McCourt gets TikTok, he says it would be developed into a platform that provides more room for “safety, democracy and civil discourse.”
“We’re not influenced by foreign actors, we’re not beholden to Big Tech, and we’ve built the necessary technology that can support this powerful platform loved by more than 170 million Americans,” he said.
“The People’s Bid for TikTok will disallow Big Tech’s current ability to exploit and monetize their time and data,” he continued. “This new type of social media is a welcome change and I fully support it.”
READ MORE: TECH BILLIONAIRE MIGHT BUY TIKTOK, BUT …
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