TikTok’s future in the US is unclear We check back in with the billionaire who wants to save it

TikTok is officially up and running Chopping blockfriends.

Last Friday, a federal appeals court upheld a law that could lead to the app being banned from operating within the United States next month. Even if President Joe Biden decides to extend this deadline for an additional 90 days, TikTok still has a very tight timeline to find its way out of this mess.

Earlier this year, I spoke with Frank McCourt for this bulletin About his attempt to buy TikTok. After the events of last week, I thought it was a good time to reach out to him again. Plus, I got some ideas on how creators can prepare for a post-TikTok future.

Let’s talk about that.

There are three options left for TikTok at this point. The company can win the appeal, forget all about this, and go back to business as usual (eventually). Next year, the app may be banned. Or it could be someone who has a lot of money Buying TikTok’s US business Outside of ByteDance. Wednesday afternoon, my colleague Ziyang And I spoke with Frank McCourt, the billionaire former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who wants to do just that.

McCourt’s motivation isn’t just to save TikTok, but to support his personal project. Through his Freedom Project initiative, he presented what he called a “people’s pitch,” bringing together a diverse group of investors and groups that shared his vision of a more open web. To achieve this, he had to apply the Liberty Project’s Decentralized Social Networking Protocol, or DSNP, to TikTok. The protocol will allow users to export their friends and followers to a new TikTok. After the court’s decision on Friday, McCourt is more confident than ever that his team will soon get the app up and running and perhaps rebuild it.

In our conversation, McCourt argued that a sale would make everyone happy, including ByteDance, users and the US government. McCourt offered $20 billion for the app’s brand, user base and existing content in order to scale his vision of an interoperable, more privacy-friendly Internet that would compete with companies like Meta and Google. He says he doesn’t “need or want” the algorithm running the “For You” page on TikTok.

When asked if Project Liberty could maintain TikTok’s current user base without its beloved algorithm, McCourt said: “People don’t know what they don’t have until you show it to them.”