TikTok is officially on the chopping block, friends.
Last Friday, a federal appeals court upheld a law that could result in the app being banned from operating within the United States next month. Even if President Joe Biden decides to extend that deadline an additional 90 days, TikTok is still on a pretty tight timeline to find a way out of this mess.
Earlier this year, I spoke with Frank McCourt for this newsletter about his bid to buy TikTok. After last week’s events, I figured it was a good time to check back in with him. Plus, I got some insight on how creators are preparing for a post-TikTok future.
Let’s talk about it.
This is an edition of the WIRED Politics Lab newsletter. Read previous newsletters here.
There are three options left for TikTok at this point. The company could win an appeal, forget about all of this, and go back to business as normal (eventually). Come next year, the app could be banned. Or, someone with a lot of money could buy TikTok’s US business off of ByteDance. Wednesday afternoon, my colleague Zeyi Yang and I spoke to Frank McCourt, the billionaire former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers who wants to do just that.
McCourt’s motivation isn’t just to save TikTok but to bolster a personal project of his. Through his Project Liberty initiative, he has made what he’s called a “people’s bid,” bringing together a variety of investors and groups that share in his vision of a more open web. To achieve this, he’d apply Project Liberty’s Decentralized Social Networking Protocol, or DSNP, to TikTok. The protocol would allow for users to export over their friends and followers to a new TikTok. And after Friday’s court decision, McCourt is more confident than ever that his team will soon be running and possibly rebuilding the app.
In our conversation, McCourt argued that a sale would make everyone happy, including ByteDance, users, and the US government. McCourt has offered $20 billion for the app’s brand, its user base, and the existing content in order to scale his vision of an interoperable, more privacy-friendly internet that competes with companies like Meta and Google. He doesn’t “need or want” the algorithm running TikTok’s For You page, he says.
When asked if Project Liberty could maintain TikTok’s existing userbase without the beloved algorithm, McCourt said, “People don’t know what they don’t have until you show them.”
There are other wealthy financiers considering buying TikTok. Earlier this year, a coalition of investors organized by former Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin were considering making a bid. We haven’t heard much else on that, though.
“The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue,” TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes said in a statement last week. “Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people.”
Of course, none of this is set in stone. Beyond the three options I laid out at the top, the Trump administration could come up with some oddball solution to save the app. There’s some speculation that the law could allow ByteDance to make structural changes to its business that president-elect Donald Trump could decide satisfy the law’s requirements. There’s also the off-chance Congress repeals the law it itself passed, but I wouldn’t bet on that happening.
All of this uncertainty has thrown creators into limbo and left them wondering whether they should continue posting TikTok content or immediately start investing in asking their followers to find them on other platforms like Instagram and Bluesky.
Sari Beth Rosenberg, an NYC teacher and content creator, tells me that she’s already sending people to her Linktree, connecting her TikTok followers with all of her other social media accounts.
“This will be a major blow to many creators and small businesses that make money on TikTok,” says Rosenberg. “However, I have faith that we will find a new place to share our ideas and messages if they end up banning TikTok.”
CJ Pearson, a conservative creator with more than half a million followers on X, tells me that he’s confident Trump will find some solution. “I 100 percent agree with President Trump and his commitment to saving TikTok … It allowed us to reach young voters in an unprecedented fashion, and post-election this is a fact that is top of mind in the heads of many Republican lawmakers that I’ve spoken to.”
As I mentioned last week, the date to remember is January 19, the day before Trump’s inauguration. That’s the last day Biden can extend the deadline and stave off a ban. TikTok has already suggested that it plans to appeal the decision, asking the court to issue an injunction to keep the app live in the US pending whether the Supreme Court takes up its case and rules in the company’s favor.
For McCourt, TikTok is his white whale, and he plans on chasing it to the end, even if the company proceeds with what could be a lengthy appeals process. “We’re lined up to do this however it happens,” McCourt says.
The Chatroom
Are you a TikTok creator stressed out about the impending ban? Even if you just use the app, are you sad that it might disappear? Where else would you spend your time online? Or do you not use TikTok at all and have no opinions about it whatsoever? I want to hear your thoughts!
Comments are back on the web version of this newsletter! Yayyyyyyy! So you can leave me a note there, or send me an email at mail@wired.com.
WIRED Reads
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The ‘Ghost Gun’ Linked to Luigi Mangione Shows Just How Far 3D-Printed Weapons Have Come: Mangione allegedly used a 3D-printed “ghost gun” to carry out last week’s assassination. These untraceable weapons have been around for more than a decade, becoming a massive problem for law enforcement. They’re becoming easier to manufacture.
A Kid Made $50,000 Dumping Crypto He’d Created. Then Came the Backlash: Last month, a kid made a memecoin on Pump.fun as a joke. The site’s community boosted its value to more than $72 million, and then people started tattling on him to his parents.
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What Else We’re Reading
🔗 Democrats Have a Pod Save America Problem: The Barack Obama–era style of campaigning did the Democrats no favors for Joe Biden or Kamala Harris this election style, but try telling that to the folks running the party. (Slate)
🔗 Spying on Student Devices, Schools Aim to Intercept Self-Harm Before It Happens: Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, surveillance software has been installed on the devices of around half of all US students to catch kids searching for information on suicide and self harm. While the software has saved some lives, it has interrupted and traumatized many others. (The New York Times)
🔗 Will Democrats Let the GOP Gut Trans Health Care?: My friend Jael Holzman, journalist and literal rock star, lays out exactly how a Republican-controlled Congress could strip trans people of health care and finds the (few) Democrats promising to stop it. (Rolling Stone)
The Download
This week we’re putting out the last WIRED Politics Lab podcast. We’re closing this election run by making our best predictions of whatever fresh hell will greet us in the new year. I’m joining our editor Tim Marchman and writer David Gilbert for the final send-off! Not going to lie, David had the best conspiracy of the week of all time, and you can listen to it here.
Here’s an example of a good Community Note on X.
Ok, bye! Thanks again for subscribing. You can get in touch with me via email, Instagram, X, Bluesky, and Signal at makenakelly.32.