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.

Real estate mogul Frank McCourt, who is trying to buy TikTok's U.S. arm, reiterated his investor group's ability to make a deal and still comply with the Supreme Court's ruling on Friday. Why it matters: Billionaire McCourt says he has the money and the technology to keep TikTok running on American phones.

A group formed by billionaire entrepreneur and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt has made a formal offer to buy TikTok from its China-based parent company, ByteDance.

Three days after ByteDance's TikTok went dark and then was quickly revived in the US, users that deleted the app were anxiously checking iPhone and Android devices to find it still unavailable to be downloaded.

TikTok will be banned in the US on 19 January - unless the Supreme Court accepts a last ditch legal bid from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, that to do so would be unconstitutional.

The law gives the president the option to extend the ban by 90 days, but triggering the extension requires evidence that parties working on purchasing have made significant progress, including binding legal agreements for such a deal — and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, hasn’t publicly updated its stance that the app is not for sale.

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,

Project Liberty, an organization led by billionaire Frank McCourt, has made an offer to ByteDance to purchase TikTok's U.S. assets.

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

ByteDance Ltd. has publicly refused to sell TikTok, though prospective buyers hope the Supreme Court's ruling and the brief TikTok shutdown could push it to reconsider

The Supreme Court is set to hear opening arguments in ByteDance’s case to block a sale.

China’s foreign and commerce ministries didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on whether Beijing would allow the American government to own part of TikTok.