Who is Frank McCourt, the US billionaire trying to buy TikTok 'for the people'?

Entrepreneur, US billionaire and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt announced on Wednesday (15 May) that his organisation, Project Liberty, is forming a consortium to purchase TikTok’s United States operations.

A law signed by US President Joe Biden on 24 April mandates that ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, must sell the app by 19 January, 2025 or face a ban. This legislation was driven by concerns that the Chinese government could access or monitor American users’ data through the app. The White House has stated that it prefers ending Chinese ownership of TikTok for national security reasons rather than banning the platform entirely.

“The foundation of our digital infrastructure is broken, and it’s time to fix it. We can, and must, do more to safeguard the health and well-being of our children, families, democracy and society. We see this potential acquisition as an incredible opportunity to catalyse an alternative to the current tech model that has colonised the internet,” said McCourt on Project Liberty’s website.

Who is Frank McCourt, currently worth $1.4 billion?

Frank H. McCourt Jr, 70, is an influential American business executive and philanthropist. Currently, he is the executive chairman and former CEO of McCourt Global, owner of French football club Marseille, and founder and executive chairman of the international non-profit Project Liberty. McCourt is best known for owning the Los Angeles Dodgers and Dodger Stadium from 2004 to 2012.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, McCourt was raised in a Catholic family and attended Georgetown University, where he earned an economics degree in 1975. He founded The McCourt Company in 1977, focusing on major commercial real estate projects, including the Union Wharf Condominium on Boston Harbour and developments in the South Boston Seaport District.

In 2004, McCourt purchased a controlling interest in American baseball team Los Angeles Dodgers from Fox Entertainment Group, relocating his family and business headquarters to Los Angeles. He led the Dodgers until 2012.

McCourt has made significant philanthropic contributions, including a $100 million donation in 2013 to establish the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, followed by another $100 million in 2021 to promote diversity and inclusivity at the school.

McCourt expanded his sports portfolio in 2016 by purchasing the French Ligue 1 football club Olympique Marseille.

In 2021, McCourt founded Project Liberty, a non-profit aimed at developing a new internet infrastructure through the Decentralised Social Networking Protocol (DSNP). This protocol supports a shared social graph independent of specific applications or centralised platforms. Project Liberty also includes the McCourt Institute, with founding academic partners at Georgetown University and Sciences Po in Paris.

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McCourt founded the Liberty Project “to build a new digital civic architecture for a safer, healthier internet,” according to the organisation’s website.

Through his diverse ventures and financial endeavors, Frank McCourt has significantly influenced sports, technology, and public policy worldwide. According to Forbes, he is worth $1.4 billion.

What will McCourt change at TikTok?

Project Liberty, collaborating with Guggenheim Securities, the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, technologists, academics, and other partners, proposes to transition TikTok to a digital open-source protocol.

McCourt expressed that in the event of a sale, he would aim to revamp TikTok by reorganising its structure and granting more control to users over their digital identities and data. This would involve transitioning the platform to an open-source protocol to enhance transparency.

“By bringing leading academics, technologists, behavioral scientists, psychologists and economic experts together with community partners, parents and citizens, we believe we can preserve – and enhance – the TikTok experience by giving individuals and creators on the platform the value and control they deserve regarding who has access to their data and how it is used,” he said on the Project’s website.

“This country has long been the global driver of ground-breaking innovation, and I encourage anyone who’s interested in reclaiming your data from Big Tech to engage with us and take a step forward to redefine the future of the internet for the people.”

Despite not using TikTok personally, McCourt’s businesses and internet-focused initiative are involved with the platform.

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This bid aligns with his longstanding commitment to reforming the internet with stronger data privacy measures, a cause he has pursued through his $500 million Project Liberty. The project, established to construct a new digital civic framework for a more secure and healthier internet, reflects his dedication to this endeavour.

McCourt has indicated that he is uninterested in TikTok’s current algorithm, as he believes that “top-down” recommendation engines contradict his vision of how such platforms should operate. He also anticipates that ByteDance will eventually sell TikTok’s US operations.

Is anyone interested in McCourt’s aspirations?

His proposal to transform TikTok has garnered support from Jonathan Haidt, a prominent social psychologist whose recent work, “The Anxious Generation,” examines the role of smartphones and social media in contributing to a mental health crisis among young individuals.

“When it comes to our society’s relationship with technology, we’re at a tipping point, and Frank McCourt and Project Liberty understand the urgency of this issue. Their vision for TikTok, redesigned for healthier dynamics, is the type of innovative solution needed to move ahead in the digital age. Social media is not going away, but it is evolving, and McCourt wants it to evolve in ways that are far less harmful to children and teens than it is today,” Haidt was quoted on the Project’s website.

“We saw this as a tremendous opportunity to expedite the development of an alternative internet,” McCourt told AP.

Among other supporters of this bid are Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and David Clark, a senior research scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

“This proposal has my support. The web I invented was to provide power and value to individuals, which they do not have at the moment. Users should have an ability to control their own data, to share it with other people and organisations as they choose. A TikTok utilising open internet protocols, such as Solid, will embrace the critical values of privacy, data sovereignty, and user mental health,” wrote Berners-Lee.

While other investors, such as former US Treasury Secretary and ex-US President Donald Trump’s former advisor Steven Mnuchin, have shown interest in acquiring TikTok, ByteDance, the parent company, has stated that it has no intention of selling the platform. Furthermore, experts suggest that the Chinese government is unlikely to approve any sale , particularly one involving the recommendation engine that powers the videos displayed in users’ feeds.

Is TikTok fighting back?

Last week, ByteDance and TikTok initiated a lawsuit against the US government to prevent the law from being enacted. On Tuesday (14 May), eight TikTok content creators launched their own legal challenge , contending that the law infringes upon their First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

Additionally, the company has been engaged in a legal dispute in the US state of Montana to oppose a state law that seeks to prohibit the video-sharing platform.

On Tuesday (14 May), TikTok, its users in Montana, and the state of Montana reached an agreement to temporarily halt a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Montana’s first-in-nation TikTok ban while the federal legal battles are ongoing.

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Montana’s law, which was temporarily blocked before its scheduled implementation on 1 January, would become void if TikTok is acquired by a company not based in a nation classified as a foreign adversary.

With inputs from agencies