Alexis Ohanian said he would name the platform ‘TikTok: Freedom Edition’ if he succeeds in buying it.
Reddit co-founder and investor Alexis Ohanian said on Tuesday that he has joined a bid to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations.
“
I’m officially now one of the people trying to buy TikTok US — and bring it on-chain,” he stated in a social media
post, referring to the idea of transitioning TikTok into a blockchain-based platform.
The post follows investor Frank McCourt’s March 3
announcement that Ohanian has joined the nonprofit Project Liberty’s consortium—dubbed “The People’s Bid for TikTok”—as a strategic adviser.
“We are excited to have him on board as we work to usher in a new and better chapter for TikTok, and turn the momentum created from The People’s Bid into building The People’s Internet,” McCourt, who founded Project Liberty, said in a statement.
Project Liberty has said that it is seeking to acquire TikTok’s U.S. assets and rebuild the video-sharing app in a way that “enables greater transparency and accountability while giving people ownership and control over their data.”
The nonprofit said it aims to decentralize TikTok by leveraging Project Liberty’s blockchain-based platform named Frequency Technology, according to a statement.
If the bid moves forward, the nonprofit said the technology “will serve as the backbone of the redesigned TikTok, ensuring that privacy, security, and digital independence are no longer optional but foundational.”
In his social media post announcing the bid, Ohanian stated that “TikTok has been a game-changer for creators, and it’s [sic] future should be built by them” with the help of Frequency Technology.
“Users should own their data. Creators should own their audience,” Ohanian
stated. “Frequency will empower these principles to become reality.”
When asked on the social media platform X what he would name the app if he bought it, Ohanian
said he would call it “TikTok: Freedom Edition.”
Project Liberty submitted its bid to TikTok’s owners ByteDance earlier this year after
securing “expressions of interest” of over $20 billion in capital from its participants, including “Shark Tank” investor
Kevin O’Leary.
TikTok was briefly shut down in the United States on Jan. 19, just hours before a law signed by then-President Joe Biden in April 2024 took effect. The law required TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to divest itself of its U.S. assets on national security grounds or face a nationwide ban.
The app came back online after President Donald Trump signed an
executive order shortly after his inauguration on Jan. 20, calling for a 75-day pause on the enforcement of the federal divest-or-ban law.
In his order, Trump said the pause would allow his administration an opportunity “to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans.”
Trump told reporters on Jan. 21 that he anticipates a deal in which the United States would hold a 50 percent stake in TikTok.
“So what I am thinking about saying to somebody is, ‘Buy it and give half to the United States of America and we’ll give you the permit,' and they’ll have a great partner,” the president
said.
Trump
said on Jan. 27 that Microsoft is one of the companies interested in buying TikTok. Jimmy Donaldson, a prominent YouTuber known as MrBeast, previously
said that he had teamed up with “a bunch of billionaires” to acquire TikTok.
ByteDance has not yet indicated whether it will sell TikTok. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has
said any acquisition of TikTok should be done according to China’s laws and regulations.
TikTok has faced scrutiny amid concerns that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could potentially gain access to U.S. consumer data and the algorithm owned by ByteDance. Officials have pointed to Beijing’s
counterespionage law, which requires all entities in China to hand over user data if the CCP authorities ask them to. ByteDance has repeatedly
maintained that it will not share U.S. user data with the CCP.
Katabella Roberts contributed to this report.
