Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and prominent tech investor, has joined billionaire Frank McCourt’s bid to acquire TikTok as a strategic adviser specializing in social media, according to a Reuters report.
Ohanian’s role in the bid, known as The People’s Bid, will be to help shape the consortium’s approach to social media, data privacy, and user control.
The initiative is led by McCourt’s internet advocacy group, Project Liberty, which aims to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations and shift toward a user-centric data model.
“He has that broad portfolio of experience … of where social media was and, I think, a keen understanding of where it’s evolving,” McCourt told Reuters. “Where he can help mostly is validating but also socializing what we’re doing.”
McCourt’s bid is one of several vying for TikTok’s U.S. assets amid continued regulatory scrutiny over the platform’s Chinese ownership.
Other interested buyers include a group led by tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley, which includes the YouTube personality MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, Wyoming entrepreneur Reid Rasner, as well as major tech firms such as Microsoft, Oracle, Perplexity AI, and former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.
The battle over TikTok’s future escalated in January after a temporary outage, which was quickly resolved following former President Donald Trump’s pledge to revive the app.
Upon taking office, Trump signed an executive order extending the deadline for a potential ban by 75 days, giving bidders more time to finalize their proposals.