Citation :
Ever since Congress passed a bill that would force the Chinese company ByteDance to sell or shut down TikTok, one of the biggest questions has been: Who could buy it, given technological, political and financial considerations? The billionaire Frank McCourt has put up his hand. Mr. McCourt said Wednesday that he was working to put together a group of bidders to buy the social media app. His goal in doing so is to rethink how TikTok, and the internet overall, use data and consider privacy. He is already in discussions about the app with academics and those who study the impact of technology like Jonathan Haidt, whose book “The Anxious Generation,” on how smartphones have affected the mental health of adolescents, has been on best-seller lists for more than a month. Mr. McCourt, a former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers who made his fortune in real estate, has long been interested in the role of technology and society. He has been on a crusade to remake the internet and wrest control of user data from tech giants like Facebook and TikTok, establishing an initiative called Project Liberty in 2021 to focus on those efforts.
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