HOWARD COUNTY, MD — Alexis Ohanian, a graduate of Howard High School and co-founder of popular forum website Reddit, has joined a group of people hoping to purchase TikTok and rebuild the platform following its brief ban in the United States.
According to a news release, Ohanian — a 2001 graduate of the Ellicott City-based high school — said he was joining The People’s Bid as a strategic advisor.
The bid, led by Project Liberty Founder Frank McCourt and submitted to ByteDance earlier this year, aims to purchase TikTok’s U.S. assets and rebuild the platform in a way that prioritizes the privacy of 170 million Americans while “directly addressing the national security concerns at the center of the proposed ban,” the news release said.
“We’re setting a new standard for what’s possible in digital communities. A TikTok for the people, by the people. Let’s see if we can pull this off,” Ohanian said in a statement shared on X.
Ohanian, an investor who is married to tennis legend Serena Williams, served on Reddit’s board of directors and went on to start the 776 Foundation. He also has invested in startup companies including Instacart, Patreon, GOAT and Daily Harvest.
“I’m officially now one of the people trying to buy TikTok US — and bring it on-chain,” Ohanian said in a series of posts made Tuesday on X, referencing a decentralized, blockchain-based platform that Project Liberty says it will leverage to provide users more control over their online data.
If successful in its bid, Project Liberty said the technology will enable greater transparency and accountability while also giving people ownership and control over their data.
“This empowers creators to own their relationships with the audiences that love their work. At the same time, businesses can cultivate more meaningful relationships with their customers,” Project Liberty said. “This technology will serve as the backbone of the redesigned TikTok, ensuring that privacy, security, and digital independence are no longer optional but foundational.”
Under a federal bill passed with bipartisan support and signed into law by former President Joe Biden last year, TikTok was required to cut ties with its China-based parent company, ByteDance, or face a ban by Jan. 19.
In one of his first executive orders signed in January, President Donald Trump extended the deadline for TikTok to find new ownership until early April.
McCourt’s consortium — which includes “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary — has already offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash for the U.S. platform. Some analysts estimate TikTok could be worth much more than that even without its coveted algorithm, which McCourt has said he’s not interested in.
Trump said in January that Microsoft is among the U.S. companies looking to take control of TikTok. Others eyeing TikTok include the artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI, which has proposed to merge its business with TikTok’s U.S. platform and give the U.S. government a stake in the new entity. There’s also Jesse Tinsley, the founder of the payroll firm Employer.com. Tinsley has said a consortium he put together — which includes the CEO of video game platform Roblox — is offering ByteDance more than $30 billion for TikTok.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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