Billionaire Frank McCourt’s Liberty Project is applying to buy TikTok

Just 10 days before the US ban on TikTok goes into effect, businessman Frank McCourt’s internet advocacy group Freedom Project It announced Thursday that it has submitted a bid to buy the social media site from Chinese technology company ByteDance.

Project Liberty and its partners, known as “The People’s Bid for TikTok,” will restructure the app to exist on an American-owned platform and prioritize users’ digital safety, the project said in a statement. statement.

“We brought a proposal to ByteDance to realize Project Liberty’s vision for a reimagined TikTok — a vision built on an American-made technology stack that puts people first,” McCourt, founder of Project Liberty, said in the statement. “By keeping the platform alive without relying on TikTok’s current algorithm and avoiding bans, millions of Americans can continue to enjoy the platform.”

A Project Liberty spokesman said the group did not disclose the financial terms of the offer, but confirmed that ByteDance had received the offer.

CNBC has reached out to TikTok for comment.

The Supreme Court will Hearing oral arguments On the ban, which the president signed into law Joe Biden Last April, on a Friday. ByteDance has repeatedly refused to sell TikTok and has appealed the legislation on First Amendment grounds.

The case has made its way through the judicial system. Most recently, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of the law on December 6, writing that the government’s national security justifications for imposing the ban were sufficiently compelling.

On December 9th File a lawsuitTikTok said the ban will cost US small businesses and social media creators $1.3 billion in revenue and profits in just one month, and that more than 7 million US users do business on TikTok.

The ban, known as the Protecting Americans from Apps Under the Control of Foreign Adversaries Act, prohibits the distribution and maintenance of the app while under Chinese ownership.

TikTok’s popular pitch aims to move TikTok to an open source platform that gives users more control over their data, as part of Project Liberty’s mission to build a more empowered internet for users.

The initiative collaborates with investment banking group Guggenheim Securities and law firm Kirkland & Ellis. Its backers include digital safety advocates, investor Kevin O’Leary, and World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee.

Correction: An earlier version of this article described the Liberty Project as a nonprofit. not so.