Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, along with MLB team owner Kevin McCourt, are eyeing a potential purchase of ByteDance’s short form content platform TikTok should the proposed ban in the United States ends up going forward.
O’Leary believes he needs help from President-elect Donald Trump to get a deal pushed.
“This isn’t just about buying TikTok’s U.S. assets,” O’Leary said in a post on X. “It’s about something much bigger: protecting the privacy of 170 million American users.”
“I’ve spoken to all the potential bidders, and it’s clear to me that Frank McCourt and Project Liberty are the team to get this done,” O’Leary said in an official statement Thursday. “This is the bid that can save TikTok. Project Liberty has brought together the right people, the right vision and the right technology to avoid a ban. It is a win for all Americans.”
“By keeping the platform alive without relying on the current TikTok algorithm and avoiding a ban, millions of Americans can continue to enjoy the platform,” McCourt added.
Project Liberty plans to migrate TikTok’s existing United States audience base of about 170 million monthly users to an American-built tech stack which they say will help minimize interruptions for users while pushing data privacy as the leading force.
The Supreme Court will be begin hearing challenges to the ban case starting on Friday which will give them a week to come to a decision.
