The goal of US real estate billionaire Frank McCourt’s acquisition of TikTok is to free the internet from the control of major platforms, which he feels are causing harm to children and ruining society.
McCourt is most recognized in the United States for having owned the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team in the past, but in Europe, he is the current owner of the illustrious football team Olympique de Marseille, which has Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, among its supporters. McCourt has been railing against the dominance of the major digital platforms for years, claiming they are causing harm to youngsters and contributing to the global collapse.
“These large platforms are manipulating us. And it explains why it seems like the globe is on fire in all free societies, isn’t that right? At the Collision tech conference in Toronto, McCourt told AFP. He pointed to the recent political turmoil in France, where the far-right could win the forthcoming parliamentary elections handily.
There’s a great deal of divisiveness, confusion, and unrest. You know what, the algorithms are doing a great job. They maintain that state for us all the time. It’s time for an overhaul.
McCourt claimed that the danger social media brought to his own seven children was what first spurred him to take action. This is a predatory internet. It’s seriously harming children. He stated, “We are witnessing a rise in child suicides as well as anxiety and sadness. To solve the issue, McCourt is advocating for a “new internet,” which he says would take authority of the internet from well-known websites like X, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
“There are hundreds of thousands of unique attributes about each of us on these networks. Furthermore, it goes beyond our geographical location, our preferred dining spots, and our shopping destinations. It has to do with our thoughts, emotions, reactions, and behaviours,” he remarked. Regardless of the social networking program people use, McCourt envisions an open-source, decentralized protocol for the future internet in which users own their data.
He said that by acquiring TikTok, his project, Project Liberty, will go to entirely new heights and attract its hordes of users, the majority of whom are younger. Internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee is a backer of Project Liberty, as is NYU professor Jonathan Haidt, whose most recent book, “The Anxious Generation,” makes the case that social media has harmed youth.
McCourt is not the only one interested in the Chinese-owned platform; Steve Mnuchin, the former Treasury Secretary under President Trump, has also put in a proposal. These proposals, which some believe are unrealistic, come after US President Joe Biden signed a measure in April giving TikTok 270 days to locate a non-Chinese buyer or risk being banned from the US. It is far from certain, though, that TikTok will be put up for sale.
The Chinese government has said that it will not tolerate the divestment of one of the nation’s most successful technology companies, and the company is battling the law in US courts.
“The data of 170 million Americans is being scraped and sent to China,” McCourt stated, “which of course poses a national security threat.” This is the US government’s concern. But, he continued, “I hope that this TikTok issue will make that light bulb go off for people, and they’ll realize (that even on other platforms) their data is being scraped and shipped somewhere.”
It’s not correct that it’s going somewhere under the authority of someone who knows everything about you, even if it’s not going to China. It’s not democratic,” he remarked.