McCourt wants to build a decentralized version of the internet where individual users, rather than tech companies, own the reams of data spawned by their online lives.

ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is required to sell the app to a U.S.-based buyer or face a nationwide ban.

Businessman Frank McCourt is "open-minded" to keeping TikTok's existing investors, including the founder, involved after any deal to buy the U.S. operations of the Chinese-owned short-form video app,

NBC News reports that TikTok has boosted advertisements for Lemon8, an application also owned by ByteDance, in recent days. Rival social-media apps and websites such as Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat are expected to increase their user base in the wake of a possible ban.

The popular platform could be banned on Jan. 19 under a federal law, while many parties have expressed interest in buying the asset.

Frank McCourt, a billionaire investor who has campaigned to make the internet safer through his Project Liberty foundation, has made a bid for TikTok. McCourt told NBC News' Kate Snow that he will make "fundamental" changes to the app if his bid is successful.

For now, TikTok’s ability to operate stateside hangs in the balance after the Supreme Court upheld the law demanding that TikTok divest from its Chinese owner or face a ban.

Business moguls should be prepared to spend tens of billions of dollars for TikTok’s U.S. operations should parent company ByteDance decide to sell.

Mr. Wonderful” Kevin O’Leary is partnering up with another investor in a bid to save TikTok and hopes China and the Supreme Court will allow them to make it “wonderful

President-elect Donald Trump says he "most likely" will give TikTok 90 more days to work out a deal that would allow the popular video-sharing platform to avoid a U.S. ban.

The Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the federal law banning TikTok beginning Sunday unless it’s sold by its China-based parent company.