Most people recognize the name Frank H. McCourt Jr. from the sports pages or the real estate section of the Boston Globe. Maybe you remember the messy, tabloid-heavy divorce that essentially forced the sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 2012. Or maybe you've seen his name on the side of a building at Georgetown University.
But if you think he’s just another real estate mogul playing with sports teams, you're missing the actual story. Honestly, what he’s doing right now is way weirder—and potentially more impactful—than owning a baseball team.
He’s trying to buy TikTok. Not to keep it as it is, but to basically rip out its "brain" and replace it.
The $20 Billion Question: What Frank H. McCourt Jr. is Actually Doing with TikTok
In May 2024, McCourt dropped a bombshell. He announced a "People’s Bid" to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations. Now, plenty of billionaires have expressed interest in the app, from Kevin O'Leary to Larry Ellison. But McCourt’s pitch isn’t about making more money from the algorithm.
In fact, he says he doesn't even want the algorithm.
That sounds like business suicide, right? Why buy the world’s most addictive app and throw away the thing that makes it work?
McCourt’s argument is that the current internet is "broken." He’s been very vocal about the idea that big tech platforms have "colonized" our data. Basically, he thinks we’ve become "digital serfs." We give away our data—our preferences, our location, our private thoughts—for free, and in exchange, we get an algorithm that manipulates us.
His plan for TikTok is to migrate its 170 million U.S. users to a new architecture. Specifically, he wants to use something called the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP).
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Wait, What is DSNP?
If you aren't a coder, DSNP sounds like alphabet soup. But it’s the core of McCourt’s $500 million Project Liberty initiative.
Think of it like email. You can have an account on Gmail and send a message to someone on Outlook. The platforms are different, but the protocol is open. You "own" your email address.
Social media doesn't work like that. If you leave Facebook, you can't take your "friends list" or your "likes" with you to X or TikTok. You’re trapped. McCourt wants to move the "social graph"—the map of who you know and what you do—out of the hands of the tech giants and onto a public utility.
Under this model, you would own your data. If an advertiser wants to see what you like, they might have to offer you a 5% discount or actual cash. You’d have the "key" to your own digital identity.
From South Boston Parking Lots to Chavez Ravine
To understand why a 71-year-old real estate developer is obsessed with decentralized protocols, you have to look at how he built his fortune. It wasn't through apps. It was through dirt and asphalt.
McCourt is a fifth-generation builder. His great-grandfather started a road-building company in Boston in 1893. Frank himself made his first real mark in the late 70s and 80s by acquiring 24 acres of "worthless" land in South Boston.
It was basically just parking lots.
But those parking lots became the collateral for his $430 million purchase of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2004. At the time, critics called him "McBankrupt" because the deal was almost entirely financed by debt. He didn't use a penny of his own cash.
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It was a massive gamble.
The Dodgers era was... complicated. On one hand, the team made the playoffs four times in six seasons. On the other, the fans hated the rising ticket prices, and the 2011 bankruptcy filing was a PR nightmare. But when the dust settled on his divorce from Jamie McCourt, he sold the team for $2.15 billion.
That’s a profit of about $1.7 billion on a team he bought with "other people's money."
Why Project Liberty Matters in 2026
Fast forward to today. McCourt is no longer just a "real estate guy." He’s a "civic entrepreneur." Through McCourt Global, he’s funneled hundreds of millions into Georgetown and Stanford to study tech ethics.
He recently released a book called Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age. It’s a bit of a manifesto. He argues that the internet was originally designed to connect machines, not people, and that we need to "re-center" it around human beings.
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Is he a saint? Or is this just another high-leverage play for the next big asset?
Critics point out that even a "decentralized" internet needs infrastructure, and McCourt is well-positioned to own the rails that this new web runs on. But even the skeptics admit his coalition is impressive. He’s got names like Jonathan Haidt (author of The Anxious Generation) and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian backing the vision.
The Reality of the TikTok Bid
Let’s be real for a second. The TikTok deal is a long shot. ByteDance has made it very clear they aren't interested in selling the algorithm, and the legal battles between the U.S. government and TikTok are ongoing as of early 2026.
But for Frank H. McCourt Jr., TikTok is just a "stepping stone."
If he can’t buy TikTok, he’s hinted at building a competitor from scratch. He’s already integrated DSNP into a smaller social platform called MeWe, which has about 20 million users. The goal is to prove that a social network can exist without a predatory algorithm.
Actionable Insights: What You Can Actually Do
You don't have to wait for a billionaire to buy TikTok to change your relationship with tech. If you're interested in the "NewNet" McCourt is pitching, here is how you can practically engage with it:
- Audit Your Data Permissions: Go into your phone settings (both iOS and Android) and look at which apps have "Background App Refresh" and "Tracking" turned on. Turn off everything that doesn't absolutely need it.
- Explore Decentralized Platforms: Check out platforms built on open protocols like DSNP or the AT Protocol (used by Bluesky). They aren't perfect, but they give you a taste of what "data ownership" feels like.
- Read the Research: Look into the work being done at the McCourt School of Public Policy. They frequently publish papers on how "digital public infrastructure" can protect kids online.
- Support Data Privacy Legislation: The reason McCourt is making this bid is because current U.S. law doesn't treat your data as your property. Following the progress of the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) will give you a better sense of where the battle lines are drawn.
The story of Frank H. McCourt Jr. is far from over. Whether he’s remembered as the man who saved the internet or just another billionaire with a big idea depends on if he can actually get 170 million people to care about their data as much as he does.