itstargetnews
‘Shark Tank’ investor Kevin O’Leary details how the Supreme Court upholding a TikTok ban would help him in his bid to buy the platform’s US assets from ByteDance in ‘America Reports’.
“Mr. Wonderful” Kevin O’Leary has teamed up with another investor to try to save TikTok and hopes China and the Supreme Court will allow them to make it “wonderful” again.
The “Shark Tank” star has teamed up with Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt to buy the platform’s US assets from its parent company, ByteDance, and “rebuild the platform in a way that prioritize the privacy of its 170 million US users.”
SUPREME COURT SEEMS SKEPTICAL to block Tiktok ban: What you need to know
TikTok faces a possible ban due to the Foreign Adversaries Controlled Applications Protection Act, a law signed by President Biden which passed Congress last April with bipartisan approval. As of midnight on January 19, the app could be pulled from US-based app stores unless it divests from its parent company.
“I want to work with him (McCourt) because he’s done a lot more work on the algorithm and he’s letting me be part of this deal so we can buy TikTok without buying the Chinese spyware,” O’Leary said on “The Big Money Show” . “Tuesday.
TikTok has faced with controversy being a company based in China and allegedly being used as spyware for the Chinese Communist Party. MPs on both sides of the aisle have warned about the potential national security threat TikTok allegedly poses via US phones.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday upheld a law forcing China-based ByteDance to divest its popular short video app TikTok in the United States by early next year or face a ban. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/File Photo/Reuters)
“The reason TikTok is about to be banned in the US is because of algorithms that allow you to spy,” O’Leary said, explaining how he and McCourt would restructure the platform so that users could decide whether to share their data with TikTok or not. Under its ownership, O’Leary argued, users who chose to share their data would be charged.
“If they share it and want to monetize it, they get a piece of the advertising action. I think that’s great,” he said. “We’re going to make this thing work the way the market wants it to work, and then we’re going to take it all over the world.”
If their bid to acquire the social media platform is successful, O’Leary explained how they would change the platform to better align with U.S. interests.
In addition to giving users ownership of their data and removing “Chinese spyware,” the investor stressed that TikTok has the potential to grow from its current 170 million users to “over 200 million” by regaining the user trust.
“We have to win back everybody who doesn’t trust it, who wouldn’t put it on their phone. And the way to do that is to democratize it, to allow people to invest with us,” O’Leary said Friday. on “Varney & Co,” on FOX Business.
O’Leary Ventures President Kevin O’Leary discusses Biden’s efforts to cancel student debt. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
“The third thing that I think everyone will find attractive, including Trump, is that we’re going to open it up to be interoperable. So if you’re posting on Truth Social or X, click here to populate TikTok. Everyone. We’d like to do that and we’d ask others , like Instagram and Meta, which do the same thing in two ways,” he added.
The investor also said how he would look to get countries like India, Switzerland, France, Canada and Germany onto the platform after these changes are instituted.
“This thing is going to become the biggest television network in the world in a matter of two years,” O’Leary said of TikTok’s growth potential.
SUPREME COURT WEIGHS ON TIKTOK BAN FRIDAY; NATIONAL SECURITY, ARE CONSIDERED LIBERTY ARGUMENTS
O’Leary and McCourt’s bid will be affected by the Supreme Court’s long-awaited ruling on the law barring the platform unless it divests, and then ByteDance’s willingness to do so if its hand is forced sooner of the deadline. The high court heard oral arguments Friday in a fast-track case ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House. A final decision is expected before opening day.
O’Leary explained how a Supreme Court decision to uphold the ban would be “good news” for his bid.
“What this means is that the company is making a binary decision as to whether to let it close at midnight on the 19th or engage with a buyer,” he told Fox News’ “America Reports” on Friday. “Now, you may know that we’ve made an offer (I think we’re the only formed syndicate that made a viable offer last night) to ByteDance, and they might want to start considering it because there’s 30 to 40 billion dollars The value of the American shareholder is tied up there And if the supreme leader (Chinese President Xi Jinping) wishes, we can shut it down like they did in India and that capital is wiped out. And, for Of course, this is not good for future capital raising.”
O’Leary argued that his and McCourt’s ambitious plans for TikTok depend heavily on Xi Jinping.
“I think the only person who matters in this deal is the supreme leader, who has to decide. All Chinese companies are controlled by him,” he said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping applauds during the joint press conference of the China-Central Asia Summit in Xian, north China’s Shaanxi province, May 19, 2023. (Photo by FLORENCE LO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
O’Leary went on to explain how China wants to be seen as a “destination” for capital, explaining that all countries need it to grow their economies, even those that are at odds with the US like China.
“They’re competing for the biggest economic status. So if you want to be a big boy and you want to play international markets, you’re not going to wipe out shareholders’ money. It’s not just American shareholders. All the sovereign wealth funds around the world , many of them have large investments in ByteDance,” he said.
GET THE FOX BUSINESS ANYWHERE CLICK HERE
“But it’s not going to be my decision or Frank McCourt’s decision. The two of us have put our union out there. We’ve made the offer. Every American shareholder has our offer. They know that. And this is really for ByteDance to decide”.
O’Leary stressed that he believes ByteDance should seriously consider its offer after his argument of freedom of expression in court “fell on deaf ears”.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“We will make it very free of expression. We will improve it a lot and we will make sure to comply with the court order. This is the right way,” he said.
