Reddit’s OG Tryna Snatch Up TikTok—Here’s the Play

Ayo, Frank McCourt just brought in Alexis Ohanian—the dude who co-founded Reddit—to help him snatch up TikTok’s U.S. operations. Ohanian got his hands deep in the tech game, flipping Reddit to Condé Nast back in ’06, then coming back in 2014 to clean house. He been throwin’ money at all kinds of startups—Instacart, Patreon, OpenSea—so he know how to move in these spaces.

McCourt say Ohanian gon’ be a key piece in pushing Project Liberty, aka “The People’s Bid,” his whole plan to buy up TikTok and put folks back in control of their own data. Basically, he tryna sell the idea that this ain’t just another corporate takeover—he tryna make it sound like a revolution or somethin’.

McCourt was like “He know where social media been, and he got a good eye on where it’s headed. Dude can help validate what we doin’, get the right people talking about it.”

Ohanian claim he on board ‘cause he want folks to have more say over their data. Sound good, but let’s be real—there’s major money on the table here. Everybody and they mama tryna get a piece of TikTok since ByteDance gotta sell or risk getting banned.

McCourt and his crew already put in their bid back in January, right before the U.S. gov came knockin’. The app even shut down for a few hours before Trump stepped in, hit pause on the ban, and threw a 75-day extension on the sale process, putting VP JD Vance in charge of making it happen.

And McCourt ain’t the only one tryna eat. Its a whole lineup of tech heads and money men in the mix, including Jesse Tinsley and YouTube star MrBeast (yeah, that MrBeast).

McCourt said he already hit up the White House with all the details—how he tryna finance the deal, how his tech approach keep national security in check, the whole rundown. Now it’s just a waiting game to see who come out on top.