Billionaire Frank McCourt plans bid to buy TikTok in the US

Billionaire tech critic Frank McCourt revealed in an interview with Semafor on Wednesday that he plans to launch a bid to acquire ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok operations in the United States.

McCourt, who is the founder of the tech and innovation initiative Project Liberty and serves as the executive chairman of McCourt Global, aims to transform the popular social media platform.

McCourt plans a new version of TikTok

McCourt’s vision for TikTok involves creating “a new and better version of the internet where individuals are respected and they own and control their identity and their data.”

He believes that the current internet model fails to adequately respect user privacy and data ownership, and sees an opportunity to make significant changes through TikTok.

What does McCourt say on data privacy?

Addressing concerns about data privacy, McCourt noted that while TikTok allows up to 170 million users to express their creativity, these users do not benefit fully from the value they create.

“Their data is scraped and stolen and shipped to China,” McCourt remarked, highlighting his intention to address these issues and offer a more secure and equitable platform for users.