Tech Billionaire Might Buy TikTok, But …
By Movieguide® Contributor
Could TikTok get a last-minute save from billionaire Frank McCourt?
Earlier this year, President Biden signed legislation that would ban the video app in the United States — unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells it to another company.
TikTok has been fighting back, even sending messages to users that read, “Speak up now — before your government strips 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression. Let Congress know what TikTok means to you and tell them to vote NO.”
READ MORE: TIKTOK BAN WOULD GO INTO EFFECT AFTER PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
However, as time runs out before the planned ban goes into effect, many have wondered if a last-minute buyer will swoop in and save the app. Billionaire, investor and philanthropist McCourt is a potential buyer, but he has shared his very different plans for TikTok’s future.
“I don’t want to own TikTok,” he said of his bid to buy TikTok. “I don’t want to be the CEO of a social media platform. I want a new internet. A new improved alternative to what we have.”
So, if McCourt isn’t interested in TikTok as an app, why is he willing to buy the app?
He and his investment group are “primarily interested in TikTok’s community, rather than the app’s powerful algorithm,” CNBC reported, making them a “nonthreatening buyer.”
“Our bet is they’re going to sell,” McCourt explained. “Because remember, there’s a lot of American capital invested. Are they just gonna wipe all that out?”
McCourt wants to create an internet that would allow users to own their data and protect kids online. He’s been working towards this goal through the organization Project Liberty.
“The internet is broken, and it’s urgent that we fix it,” he said in a statement on the Project Liberty website. “We can — and must — do more to safeguard the health and wellbeing of our children, our democracy, and our society as a whole. The institutions and ideals we cherish most are being destroyed for use of free apps that steal our personal data and digital identities. I encourage anyone who is interested in reclaiming their personhood from the machines of Big Tech to engage with Project Liberty and help reimagine an internet that is designed for people and the collective good. We can do this.”
This goal has earned the support of parents around the country; especially those whose children have been negatively impacted by social media.
READ MORE: SOCIAL MEDIA KILLED HER DAUGHTER. NOW SHE’S FIGHTING BIG TECH.
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