Yet another top Silicon Valley investor is throwing his hat in the ring to acquire TikTok’s U.S. subsidiary. Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of Reddit, announced Tuesday that he’s joining a group of investors in their bid for the popular video-based social media company.
“I’m officially now one of the people trying to buy TikTok U.S.—and bring it on-chain,” Ohanian wrote on X, using a common crypto term for integrating blockchain technology.
Ohanian, who didn’t immediately respond to a request for a comment, is the latest addition to the “People’s Bid for TikTok,” a consortium of investors led by Project Liberty. The nonprofit is funded by businessman Frank McCourt, former owner and chairman of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The consortium also includes Kevin O’Leary, the entrepreneur best known for his role on the show Shark Tank.
Project Liberty has developed what it calls DSNP, or the decentralized social networking protocol, according to its website. It’s a blockchain-based network that allows users to own their own data, as opposed to traditional social media networks like Facebook, where companies like Meta own and sell user data to advertisers or third parties. Other crypto firms have proposed similar ideas built on blockchains like Ethereum, including Farcaster.
McCourt previously told Wired that he wants to put TikTok on DSNP. “What we’re proposing is there’ll be an alternative where [users] are not surveilled, the data isn’t scraped, and they permit the use of their data,” he said in an interview.
Ohanian alluded to McCourt’s ideas of decentralized social media in his announcement. “Users should own their data. Creators should own their audience. Period,” he said.
Plans for a new ownership group for TikTok began to swirl last May after President Joe Biden signed a bill to ban the app owing to concerns that China’s government has access to users’ data and has an influence over its content. TikTok sued to block the proposed ban, and the litigation went to the Supreme Court, where the majority of justices seemed inclined to uphold the bill.
In January, TikTok in the U.S. briefly went dark before incoming President Donald Trump said he would extend TikTok’s operations for 90 days to accommodate the close of a potential deal. One day later, TikTok went back online. “Frankly, we have no choice, we have to save it,” Trump said during a rally that day.
Competitors to Project Liberty include an investor group represented by Jimmy Donaldson, a popular YouTuber otherwise known as MrBeast. TikTok’s U.S. operations may go for as much as $50 billion, according to Angelo Zino, senior vice president at CFRA, a financial research firm.