06:05 PM
Frank McCourt, an American real estate billionaire, wants to keep TikTok to rescue the internet from the clutches of the large platforms that, he believes, are destroying society and endangering children.
Read here: Dance to TikTok’s algo-rhythm or ban it?
Court is known as the former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, while in Europe he is the owner of the famous Olympique de Marseille, which has President Emmanuel Macron among its fans.
For years, McCourt has warned that the power of large technology platforms It is harming children and leading the world astray.
“We are being manipulated by these big platforms. And that is why we see that in free societies, everywhere, the world seems on fire. Isn’t that right? “He told the AFP Agency during the Collision technology conference in Toronto.
Among others, he cited the situation in France, where the far-right could have a victory in the upcoming parliamentary elections, as the latest example of his perception.
Read on: Does TikTok encourage addiction? The European Union is suspicious of this
“There is a lot of turmoil, a lot of chaos, a lot of polarization. You know what? The algorithms are working well. They constantly keep us in this state. It is time to change“, held.
McCourt said that Her first motivation to act was the threat that social media posed to her seven children.
“This internet is predatory. It is doing great harm to children. We see anxiety, depression, and an epidemic of child suicides”, he emphasized.
To solve the problem, McCourt campaigns for a “new internet” which should take control of the network away from large platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, or X.
“These platforms have hundreds of thousands of our personal characteristics, each of us. And it’s not just where we shop or what we like to eat or where we physically are at any given moment. It is the way we think, get excited, react or how we behave,” he indicated.
McCourt imagines a new internet which describes as decentralized, where users control their own data, regardless of the social media app you are using.
Buying TikTok would give his project, known as Project Liberty, a new scale, uniting legions of users, mainly young people, to his cause, he explained.
Project Liberty counts internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee among its members, as does Jonathan Haidt, an NYU professor whose latest book, “The Anxious Generation,” argues that the effects of social media in young people they have been devastating.
Read on: Why does China, which has blocked social media, insist that the US not ban TikTok?
Other interested parties
McCourt is not the only one who has had his eye on the Chinese platform. Former United States Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin also wants to present his offer.
These plans continue to a law signed by President Joe Biden in April that gives TikTok 270 days to find a buyer from outside China or face a ban in the United States, for reasons of national security. However, it is not yet clear whether the social network will end up for sale.
The company is fighting before the US Justice against this law, and the Chinese government has indicated that it will not accept the delivery of one of the country’s most successful technology brands.
“The concern of the US government is that data of 170 million Americans sent to China”, which, “of course”, represents a threat to national security, McCourt notes.
Read more: Tik Tok, the favorite network of Generation Z, puts Google in check
The billionaire hopes that the TikTok case will allow people to “realize” that other platforms also send their data “to other sites.”
“Maybe they don’t go to China, but (personal data) goes to other sites controlled by someone who has everything about you. And that is not correct. That is undemocratic,” McCourt concluded.
