With less than one month until TikTok could be banned in the United States, a billionaire is tossing his hat into the ring as a potential buyer.

Frank McCourt, founder of assignment Liberty and executive chairman of McCourt Global, announced last week that he is building a throng of associates to purchase TikTok in order to prevent a ban of the platform in the U.S.

In April, President Joe Biden passed legislation that would ban TikTok on Jan. 19, 2025, if its Chinese parent business ByteDance does not sell it. The legislation has been in the works for several years, as government officials terror that TikTok may be sharing American data with the Chinese government.

Led by assignment Liberty, McCourt’s consortium has been deemed “People’s Bid For TikTok,” which wants to allow users the chance to access and manage their own data. McCourt claims he has received verbal commitments totaling up to $20 billion for the purchase, according to the assignment Liberty website.

If assignment Liberty acquired TikTok, it would only be the U.S. portion of the platform and would not include TikTok’s algorithm, which China sees as its intellectual property, McCourt told CBS’ “Face the country” earlier this month. Additionally, China has been vocal in the history about its opposition to selling the app entirely.

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Neither assignment Liberty nor TikTok immediately responded to USA TODAY’s request for comment on Monday.

Who is Frank McCourt?

McCourt, 71, is a former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. As executive chairman of McCourt Global, which dates back to roots in Boston to the late 1890s, McCourt has invested in real estate, sports, tech and media, according to Forbes.

In January 2023, McCourt founded assignment Liberty through a $500 million stake distribution.

What is assignment Liberty?

assignment Liberty is an initiative to decentralize the internet.

“The internet is broken and it’s urgent that we fix it,” a statement from McCourt says on the assignment Liberty website. “The institutions and ideals we cherish most are being destroyed for use of free apps that steal our personal data and digital identities.”

McCourt’s objective is to stitch together technologists, academics, policymakers and everyday internet users to construct a “better internet, where the data is ours to manage, the platforms are ours to govern and the power is ours to reclaim,” per the assignment Liberty website.

What’s the latest TikTok ban update?

On Dec. 18 the Supreme Court agreed to listen TikTok’s test to the legislation. The platform and ByteDance must convince the court to overturn a lower court’s selection that the national safety risks of TikTok outweigh the law’s infringement of free talk rights.

The high court will listen oral arguments from TikTok on Jan. 10. If the Supreme Court upholds the legislation and/or assignment Liberty is unable to purchase TikTok before Jan. 19, the platform will be banned from distribution in the United States.

The Apple App Store and Google Play Store will be prohibited from distributing the app for download and it will be illegal for U.S. internet service providers to host TikTok.

Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. pursue her on X and Instagram @gretalcross. narrative concept? Email her at [email protected].