Speaker 1: Now really.
Speaker 2: Really now, really well and welcome to really know really,
Speaker 2: but Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden, who remind you that
Speaker 2: we're still patiently waiting for you to subscribe to our show.
Speaker 2: So TikTok, And speaking of TikTok, it has been in
Speaker 2: the news in a big way lately, delisted banned under Biden,
Speaker 2: then relisted under Trump. But for how long will the
Speaker 2: band stick? Will the Chinese government continue to allegedly manipulate
Speaker 2: Americans with disinformation? Or will it divest and sell to
Speaker 2: a third party. One man who may well know the
Speaker 2: answers to all these questions is billionaire Frank McCourt, who
Speaker 2: is attempting to buy TikTok and transform not only the app,
Speaker 2: but the Internet itself. Really no, really, He is working
Speaker 2: with a cabal of investors, including mister Beast, Shark Tanks,
Speaker 2: Kevin O'Leary, and perhaps even our own Howie Mandel, to
Speaker 2: buy TikTok and transform it into a virtual Internet to
Speaker 2: point oh that gives individuals you ownership of your data.
Speaker 2: Revolutionary idea publicity stunt, or a better, safer.
Speaker 1: Internet of the future.
Speaker 2: Jason Alexander couldn't make it for this episode to find out,
Speaker 2: so he reached out to another Baldyat to fill in
Speaker 2: in fact, an even balder guy and a big friend
Speaker 2: of the show, mister Howie Mandel. So here are two
Speaker 2: guys who are our own personal dealer, no deal, Peter
Speaker 2: and Hollie.
Speaker 1: What is that I shouldn't put this on here because
Speaker 1: it's a It's okay, it's branded, but you can always
Speaker 1: use a brand. Really no, really, So I just want
Speaker 1: to welcome ever body to really know, really, and with
Speaker 1: Peter Tilden and Jason Alexander, Jason not here today really
Speaker 1: really no really, So we said, is there anyone bald
Speaker 1: they can fill in for? Jason? And Howie Mendel was
Speaker 1: sitting in here, which is weird. You sitting here between
Speaker 1: shooting your pocket could go daze and you're just in here.
Speaker 3: I just haven't left, and I would say anyhow to
Speaker 3: I watch you and Jason, and I know what you're
Speaker 3: gonna say. I love your show. I watch your show,
Speaker 3: and you're gonna say, really, no, really, I'm serious, and
Speaker 3: that I do you you really?
Speaker 1: You know I love it. The emphasis to show that
Speaker 1: you're not lying is the finger you went. I do
Speaker 1: I'm a parent. I do. I'm a parent. I have
Speaker 1: to do that for your kids. You have to say
Speaker 1: sit down and I mean it. Yeah, I mean it.
Speaker 1: I mean it. In today's episode is TikTok is in
Speaker 1: the news. And I don't know if you know this,
Speaker 1: but the statistics are that one hundred and seventy million
Speaker 1: Americans use it. One third of those are under fourteen.
Speaker 1: And we have Frank McCourt on, who was we know
Speaker 1: him here as the owner of the Dodgers. But Frank
Speaker 1: is trying to buy TikTok with the guy from Shark Tank,
Speaker 1: Kevin O'Leary and mister Bees, which is to me, who
Speaker 1: you know and Jim to me, he's Jimmy.
Speaker 3: I think there are worldwide billions of people that are
Speaker 3: uploading TikTok on really, no, really, we are going to
Speaker 3: have some inside information right now. We are going to
Speaker 3: get that nobody will the person that might be instrumental
Speaker 3: inktok and be instrumental in how it works, how it
Speaker 3: continues to work, what if there's any changes, if there's
Speaker 3: anything is coming up, and whether you are a fifteen
Speaker 3: year old girl that is coming up with a new
Speaker 3: dance or somebody who is really concerned about the future
Speaker 3: of our safety because information may be leaked to a
Speaker 3: perceived enemy. This is the guy that has the answer.
Speaker 3: So nobody's going to turn away right now.
Speaker 1: You know that. They say the whole generation is getting
Speaker 1: all their information from TikTok.
Speaker 3: If you can control a software, any kind of software,
Speaker 3: and TikTok is probably one of the most prevalent softwares
Speaker 3: right now in our world, whether it's America on our plane,
Speaker 3: they can get into once you can control that, even
Speaker 3: if it's just Charlie Demilio who made millions dancing, they
Speaker 3: could get into through her bank account, into a bank
Speaker 3: in America, and then through once you're inside the bank,
Speaker 3: you can get more information.
Speaker 1: It's like a never ending But they also and I
Speaker 1: know you do this too. We've had this conversation in
Speaker 1: between waiting between shows. The album is going to feed
Speaker 1: you only what it wants to knows the more they
Speaker 1: can sell you. People live in people live in their
Speaker 1: own algorithms.
Speaker 3: Anyhow, I was having a discussion earlier today with somebody
Speaker 3: and I said, they said, what is your fear of
Speaker 3: the world? And I feel, whether you're on social media
Speaker 3: or not, most people and I say this as somebody
Speaker 3: who travels a lot from place to place. Tomorrow I'm
Speaker 3: going to be in Fargo. But what I find is,
Speaker 3: and you might know this, is that wherever you go,
Speaker 3: the average person doesn't go anywhere.
Speaker 1: I will land.
Speaker 3: A guy in his fifties will pick me up and
Speaker 3: tell me he's never been on a plane before. And
Speaker 3: our parents of our generation, everybody that came into the
Speaker 3: house looked the same, had the same socioeconomic kind of level.
Speaker 3: And so people don't that's your algorithm.
Speaker 1: Whatever.
Speaker 3: My mom used to call me from a condo and
Speaker 3: you go, you know what everybody likes.
Speaker 1: No, you don't know what everybody likes. That's your choice.
Speaker 1: Now you're getting fed information whether you like it or not.
Speaker 1: Let's go, you know we should do. Go to Frank.
Speaker 1: Let's go to Frank. Frank.
Speaker 4: How are you guys?
Speaker 1: I'm good, Frank. I don't know if you remember me.
Speaker 1: I was at KBC.
Speaker 4: I do remember you.
Speaker 5: How are you?
Speaker 1: I'm good?
Speaker 5: So?
Speaker 1: How are you?
Speaker 4: How are you doing? How you How have you guys
Speaker 4: been bearing up with the LA situation?
Speaker 1: There always okay, I'm living in one room with my
Speaker 1: family right now because I had to flee the Pala States.
Speaker 1: So it's been a tough time and it's a real
Speaker 1: tough time.
Speaker 3: And the fact that he is sitting here today broadcasting
Speaker 3: and here for you is our ultimate Really, no, really,
Speaker 3: this guy's been it was a little tough through it's
Speaker 3: still tough.
Speaker 1: Good thanks Frank, thank you for that, and sorry.
Speaker 4: You're going through it.
Speaker 6: I have two boys still living out in La So
Speaker 6: there's a whole group of people whose lives are upside
Speaker 6: down now and kids that are just everything that they
Speaker 6: you know, they thought everything was safe and great and.
Speaker 4: Now that's right.
Speaker 1: Well, very exactly. Thank God for TikTok But let's let's
Speaker 1: so let's do this. Welcome Frank, mister Frank McCourt, who
Speaker 1: I knew from the Dodgers when you were in La. So,
Speaker 1: Frank McCourt is trying to buy TikTok Son. Why don't
Speaker 1: you give us some context to how that, How are
Speaker 1: you doing that, who you're doing it with? And do
Speaker 1: they want to sell do they even want to sell?
Speaker 6: Well personal great to be with you guys and appreciate
Speaker 6: your interest in the subject. And and Peter, I'm really
Speaker 6: glad you started with La Connection because that was my
Speaker 6: early epiphany here. I mean you you you know what
Speaker 6: I went through out there during during my very public divorce,
Speaker 6: and it was you know, very uncomfortable, humiliating, you know,
Speaker 6: and to be battered around by social media.
Speaker 4: It's just it's not a good feeling. That was my
Speaker 4: first glimpse.
Speaker 6: And I'm not asking you to be sorry for me,
Speaker 6: because I'm doing great and everything worked out, you know,
Speaker 6: worked out for me, but it was I really saw
Speaker 6: that social media had become weaponized.
Speaker 4: It's it just favors my behavior.
Speaker 6: And I ended up selling the Dodgers for you know,
Speaker 6: a ton of dough and worked out great, and I
Speaker 6: thought I'd do something positive with what I had learned.
Speaker 6: So that's when I shifted gears and in twenty nineteen
Speaker 6: launched this project Project Liberty. Committed a half a billion
Speaker 6: dollars to it to actually go back to my roots,
Speaker 6: which are infrastructure roots. My family's been building infrastructure for
Speaker 6: five generations. When I started Project Liberty, I had no
Speaker 6: idea that there was going to be legislation banned TikTok,
Speaker 6: But when it happened, I thought it was just, you know,
Speaker 6: an incredible opportunity to buy us TikTok. Move the user base,
Speaker 6: the one hundred and seventy million Americans over to a
Speaker 6: new clean stack where they're not exploited, they're not survelled,
Speaker 6: their data is not taken from them, they own their data,
Speaker 6: they can get value forward.
Speaker 4: And if we can get.
Speaker 6: One hundred and seventy million Americans over, then we have
Speaker 6: an alternative Internet that we can actually use.
Speaker 1: Can I ask questions?
Speaker 3: So my question to you is, I understand that the
Speaker 3: reason and the fear that people have toward TikTok is
Speaker 3: that a perceived enemy, namely China, has access to whatever
Speaker 3: information has been put into this bite dance. You would
Speaker 3: in purchasing if that should go through in purchasing a TikTok,
Speaker 3: do I, as a TikTok user, have to re up
Speaker 3: with whatever your platform is or it does it does
Speaker 3: it automatically come out of byte dance into your stack
Speaker 3: and they already have that information?
Speaker 1: Is that erased in some way? Like what is the safety?
Speaker 6: Great great question, and first answer is yes, you would.
Speaker 6: TikTok users would go ahead and the experience would be
Speaker 6: very similar to the experience today. They would be able
Speaker 6: to enjoy TikTok and use TikTok and be connected just
Speaker 6: like people are today, but in lieu of being surveilled
Speaker 6: and having their data scrade and being subject to you know,
Speaker 6: to missing disinformation because once China has your data, then
Speaker 6: they can go ahead and feed you information. Right in
Speaker 6: lieu of that, you would be permissioning the use of
Speaker 6: your data with others, and you would actually be able
Speaker 6: to get value for your data as well. So the
Speaker 6: user experience very similar, the look and feel the same,
Speaker 6: but it would empower the one hundred and seventy million
Speaker 6: people on TikTok rather than just the platform that is
Speaker 6: that is taking advantage of them.
Speaker 4: So that's that's the difference.
Speaker 3: As a user, I have eleven million followers on TikTok
Speaker 3: right now. So the one hundred and seventy million Americans
Speaker 3: who have accumulated this kind of following and this kind
Speaker 3: of audience, as I look at them, I would have
Speaker 3: to abandon what is now TikTok to go to your
Speaker 3: Why would I give up those eleven million followers who
Speaker 3: are on TikTok.
Speaker 4: Okay, So it's actually just the opposite.
Speaker 6: Howie, I met with twenty of the top influencers on
Speaker 6: TikTok at the time we were announcing the bid, because
Speaker 6: I wanted to make sure we weren't king to just
Speaker 6: get blown out of the water by the major influences
Speaker 6: on TikTok. Right when we announced this bid, so I
Speaker 6: hosted at dinner out in Malibu with twenty of them
Speaker 6: that have over one hundred million of one hundred and
Speaker 6: seventy million followers or people following that month on TikTok,
Speaker 6: and I came away with incredible insight into what they
Speaker 6: like and what they don't like about the platform. And
Speaker 6: what they don't like about the platform are two things.
Speaker 6: Number One, they post a interesting video and they it
Speaker 6: goes viral and they're famous and they love it. They
Speaker 6: post another video that's very similar in their mind and
Speaker 6: it's nothing. Nothing happens, and they have no idea why
Speaker 6: on TikTok because it's it's a content graph, not social
Speaker 6: graph technology, meaning it's content that gets amplified. Right, it's
Speaker 6: not people are following, not Hollowie, but content that Howie
Speaker 6: posts on TikTok. The influences on TikTok don't They don't
Speaker 6: know who they're following. They don't have any insight int
Speaker 6: who that community is, unlike the other social media platforms
Speaker 6: that are social graphic based. So when we told them
Speaker 6: that they would not only know who their followers are,
Speaker 6: but they would own them. We won't own them or
Speaker 6: byte dance wouldn't own them, they would own their relationships.
Speaker 6: Wanted to make very very important for your listeners to understand.
Speaker 6: It's not that China has data on one hundred and
Speaker 6: seventy million Americans.
Speaker 4: That's the worst part of this.
Speaker 6: It's that China can feed information to one hundred and
Speaker 6: seventy million Americans. That suits China to get those one
Speaker 6: hundred and seventy million.
Speaker 4: People to believe it.
Speaker 6: Half of the people that use TikTok are getting all
Speaker 6: their news from TikTok, and only one percent of that
Speaker 6: news quote unquote is coming from reliable sources.
Speaker 4: It's just information that may or may not be correct
Speaker 4: or or verified.
Speaker 6: So it's not like resource news that's been validated. It's
Speaker 6: the manipulation of people that that freaked out Congers.
Speaker 1: So Frank here asking a couple of questions. Number one,
Speaker 1: how do you monitor I can hear people yelling about
Speaker 1: your house to monetize his platform? Number one? Number two
Speaker 1: are you going to get one hundred and seventy million?
Speaker 1: And the third part of that is does this company
Speaker 1: White Dance put a name by way, do they want
Speaker 1: to sell? Do you have a shot at this or
Speaker 1: how's this moving along? And what if they say no?
Speaker 4: Okay?
Speaker 6: So if the Chinese Communist Party or the founder and
Speaker 6: controlling shareholder by Dance, either of them or both of
Speaker 6: them decide not to sell it, to shut it down,
Speaker 6: it's game over.
Speaker 4: Okay, we don't control that outcome.
Speaker 6: If they agree to sell it, then it gets interesting
Speaker 6: for us because it's not going to go just to
Speaker 6: the highest bidder. It's going to someone that can actually
Speaker 6: solve for the national security issues, which means a complete
Speaker 6: disentanglement from the Chinese technology, which means you need to
Speaker 6: have a tech stack to move the user base and
Speaker 6: the data over to If you don't have that, then
Speaker 6: you can't bid. That's where Project Liberty came in because
Speaker 6: we had been building a tech stack for four and
Speaker 6: a half years and it was up and running, so
Speaker 6: otherwise we wouldn't be a.
Speaker 4: Bitter for this.
Speaker 6: As far as the model, the economic model, there will
Speaker 6: be advertising in this new world, but rather than have
Speaker 6: advertising to be based on scraping our data, profiling us,
Speaker 6: pushing ads towards us, in other words, targeting us, maybe
Speaker 6: sending us some stuff that's relevant, and maybe sending us
Speaker 6: a lot of stuff that's a nuisance.
Speaker 4: Why not shift from.
Speaker 6: An attention economy to an intention economy where you want
Speaker 6: to buy something competer Just go online and say you're
Speaker 6: I'm a real person. I can verify that I'm a person.
Speaker 6: I'm not a bot, or I'm not pretending I'm Howie.
Speaker 6: You can withhold your your name as I'm interested in
Speaker 6: buying still in the blank, show me what.
Speaker 3: You have as somebody who is on social media and
Speaker 3: a big probably a bigger part of what I do
Speaker 3: is on social media than what people know me for
Speaker 3: on television. My question to you is, why would you
Speaker 3: buy TikTok when for the last four years you have
Speaker 3: built a stack that can actually handle that kind of business.
Speaker 3: Why wouldn't you just launch that and offer something more.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you something.
Speaker 3: I make money on YouTube, I make money on other platforms.
Speaker 3: The hardest place for me to make money is on TikTok,
Speaker 3: even with a supposedly eleven million followers. Why don't you
Speaker 3: just offer a big you know, because that's what's driven
Speaker 3: the influencer or the creator to those platforms. Why would
Speaker 3: you waste money and buy TikTok when you can just
Speaker 3: replicate and do it yourself.
Speaker 6: Well, and we we are and we will, so we're
Speaker 6: not putting all of our eggs in this basket.
Speaker 4: This is just a would be an incredible way to.
Speaker 6: Actually turn a problem into a solution. So take something
Speaker 6: that's a threat to the country, turn it into a
Speaker 6: new Internet that's better for people and how you know,
Speaker 6: as well as anyone the most challenging part of of
Speaker 6: any new tech idea on the Internet is how do
Speaker 6: you get adoption right? How do you get how do
Speaker 6: you create traction? And this money instant traction, that's it.
Speaker 1: That's not money.
Speaker 4: That's the benefit to us.
Speaker 6: We're building this alternative Internet with or without TikTok.
Speaker 3: But if you took the money that you were kind
Speaker 3: of allocating to buy the brand as it were, if
Speaker 3: you took that money and play and paid it to
Speaker 3: the creators, I think that people are following. That's why
Speaker 3: they're called influencers. If you own the influencers, if you
Speaker 3: own those top twenty people that you talk to in Malibu,
Speaker 3: and you paid them enough, people are going to follow
Speaker 3: as you said, they follow the content. So if you
Speaker 3: could buy the content, then you could get it without
Speaker 3: actually buying then and you could relegate TikTok to you
Speaker 3: know almost nothing without buying it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: If you could buy the content, then you could get
Speaker 3: it without actually buying then. Yeah, and you could relegate
Speaker 3: TikTok to you know, almost nothing without buying it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: And that's why we call it the people's bit because
Speaker 6: our whole point of view here is I want to
Speaker 6: green Bay packer this thing, just like the fans on
Speaker 6: the packers. I want the influencers to own a big
Speaker 6: chunk of this business. We believe our premises the current
Speaker 6: Internet is fundamentally broken. It's doing more damage than it's
Speaker 6: doing good. It's doing good things, but it's doing a
Speaker 6: lot of bad things.
Speaker 4: And and and.
Speaker 6: Our premise is that the reason why it's creating the
Speaker 6: harms and doing the damage that it's doing is because
Speaker 6: it was never designed to do what it was doing.
Speaker 6: When the inventors of the Internet, when Tim Berners lead,
Speaker 6: the inventor of the World Wide Web, set it up,
Speaker 6: it was not imagine that it was going to connect
Speaker 6: billions of people without any rules of the road whatsoever,
Speaker 6: and so it's amplifying bad stuff. Look at look at
Speaker 6: the our information ecosystem. It's hard to tell facts from fiction.
Speaker 3: But everybody not only but not only digitally, like even
Speaker 3: regular mainstream media is tough to believe.
Speaker 6: I and can guess what mainstream media did when the
Speaker 6: Internet became the predominant means of communication. What everybody everybody
Speaker 6: sat around in those conventional media boardrooms when they were
Speaker 6: deciding what was going to be the headline of the
Speaker 6: day or what was going to go on the the
Speaker 6: you know, the traditional newscast, it was what's trending. And
Speaker 6: what was missed in this whole equation is what trends
Speaker 6: online is not the most researched news, the most important story,
Speaker 6: even not even a factually accurate story. It's what gets
Speaker 6: the most followers. And we've learned that what gets the
Speaker 6: most followers is the most extreme and that doesn't mean
Speaker 6: it's at all accurate. So our information system has been
Speaker 6: completely contaminated under a I know that money is a
Speaker 6: great incentive for people, and if people just stop for
Speaker 6: a second look at the value of these five or
Speaker 6: seven companies, it's it's you based on our data. That's
Speaker 6: that's that's what creates the value of the enterprise. And
Speaker 6: it's only going to get bigger and bigger and bigger
Speaker 6: with AI.
Speaker 4: People. If if people, if people own.
Speaker 6: And control their their data and permission it's use, then
Speaker 6: they're going to get They're going to.
Speaker 4: Set the terms. Imagine an Internet Peter.
Speaker 6: We're rather than clicking mindlessly on the terms and conditions
Speaker 6: of use of a few platforms giving up everything for
Speaker 6: a free app, the new apps are clicking on your
Speaker 6: terms and conditions.
Speaker 4: Of use for your data.
Speaker 6: But can I If it's some use case that's going
Speaker 6: to cure cancer, you're going to say you can have
Speaker 6: my data on an anonymous basis.
Speaker 4: If it's a commercial thing, you're going to say, I
Speaker 4: want to get taped.
Speaker 3: But Frank, Frank all all. You know, I'm just going
Speaker 3: to be you know, totally. I don't think the average
Speaker 3: person that is on TikTok really cares about their data.
Speaker 3: I don't think the average person on TikTok really cares
Speaker 3: about what China is going to do with my bank account,
Speaker 3: which China is going to want you. You did explain
Speaker 3: to me that the bigger deal is that they'll be
Speaker 3: able to push miscombation in my way, and maybe that'll
Speaker 3: kind of convince me to do you know their agenda.
Speaker 3: That being said, if you want to push people off TikTok,
Speaker 3: wich you didn't answer.
Speaker 1: Was the question I asked, why don't?
Speaker 3: Because money does drive movement, Why don't you just offer
Speaker 3: all this money that you your conglomerate is putting together
Speaker 3: to the actual users. I promise you that the average person,
Speaker 3: whether you're fifteen years old, whether you're five years old,
Speaker 3: will go on I'd rather dance on TikTok and on
Speaker 3: your TikTok and get big money. Whereas when I dance
Speaker 3: on my TikTok, even with the eleven million viewers, people
Speaker 3: like to accumulate numbers. They they're more fascinated with accumulating dollars.
Speaker 3: I'd rather dance on yours, and you give me the
Speaker 3: money and save the money that you want to give
Speaker 3: bike dance, give it to me, and I promise you
Speaker 3: I and everybody I know will be dancing on your platform.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I'm sorry, I thought I answered that question
Speaker 6: by saying, card a pull up the people's bid because
Speaker 6: we want the influencers we if we're successful in buying it,
Speaker 6: to come on over and incentivize them to come over
Speaker 6: because they're getting paid and they're going to own a
Speaker 6: piece of the equity. And what I intended on communicating
Speaker 6: is if we're unsuccessful because byt Dance shuts it down
Speaker 6: or because someone else buys it, not us, then we're
Speaker 6: going to continue to chug along doing what we're doing
Speaker 6: and incentivize people to.
Speaker 4: Move to this new world.
Speaker 6: And and part of that incentive will be influencers and
Speaker 6: creators and so forth getting paid. And by the way,
Speaker 6: it will also be regular Joe sixpack getting paid for
Speaker 6: his data. Everybody will get paid for their data, and
Speaker 6: those that have data that's more valuable like yours, will
Speaker 6: get paid eleven million times more. So it's not that,
Speaker 6: but everybody is in this party because everybody is producing
Speaker 6: data all day long that is driving that is driving
Speaker 6: the value of these companies. And so by all means,
Speaker 6: we're gonna we're going to carry on here with or
Speaker 6: without a successful bid for daytime.
Speaker 1: Okay. And by the way, is mister beasts.
Speaker 4: Part of this, Mister Beast, is that Jimmy's part of
Speaker 4: every bid.
Speaker 1: He's very friendly with Jimmy. I'm the only one who's
Speaker 1: not friendly with Himming. So he's part of every bid
Speaker 1: and others. I know, you have the guy who is
Speaker 1: involved in the beginning of the Internet, is part of
Speaker 1: your consortium, correct.
Speaker 6: All the people that build these We have two parts
Speaker 6: of Project Liberty. One part is a commercial part, because
Speaker 6: this has to be a vibrant commercial system to ever
Speaker 6: happen and be real with lots of people using at
Speaker 6: building and making money. And then there's a not for
Speaker 6: profit piece, which is where a lot of the academics
Speaker 6: and the universities and the people they just want to
Speaker 6: fix this mess sit. We're suggesting there needs to be
Speaker 6: another simple, poorlier protocol.
Speaker 4: Nobody owns it. Everybody owns it.
Speaker 6: It's open source that connects us for the first time.
Speaker 6: We should be a person on the Internet. After fifty
Speaker 6: years of Internet technology, not a device. You and I
Speaker 6: are still and I I have an ID address, We're
Speaker 6: still a device on the Internet. We're not a person,
Speaker 6: and that's fundamentally part of the problem.
Speaker 1: Can I be part of the consortium? And by the way,
Speaker 1: I was just going to say, I was going to
Speaker 1: say goodbye to you. Thank you, Frank, But do know
Speaker 1: I know how we well enough. I know thirty plus
Speaker 1: years he's raring to be part of this order. I
Speaker 1: want to be.
Speaker 3: I actually think what you're doing. And I hadn't spoken
Speaker 3: to anybody. I spoke to Kevin a little bit. Kevin
Speaker 3: has been here in the office and I talked to him.
Speaker 3: And I have my own issues that I would like
Speaker 3: to because I do believe that aside from whatever the
Speaker 3: dangers that you foresee, the personal dangers that the Internet
Speaker 3: is kind of putting upon us with mental health, it's
Speaker 3: and I would imagine on your platform there will be
Speaker 3: guardrails in as far as what that content is. It's
Speaker 3: not only misinformation, even if it's real information. People are
Speaker 3: getting hurt by it. And there needs to be a
Speaker 3: much more responsible way to broadcast any of this and
Speaker 3: be transparent.
Speaker 6: So I would love to be a small tell yourself
Speaker 6: in this is the people fit we want it. The
Speaker 6: more I want to help create a new Internet that
Speaker 6: we all can benefit from.
Speaker 3: So are you going to replicate Instagram and YouTube and
Speaker 3: all these other platforms?
Speaker 1: Is that what your goal is?
Speaker 4: It's it's it. They will all be replicated. I'm not
Speaker 4: going to replicate the more.
Speaker 6: There'll be millions of people building on this new infrastructure
Speaker 6: and it will be far far better. You know what
Speaker 6: I want your listeners to to think about, is we
Speaker 6: hear dabted that you. I heard you say. People don't
Speaker 6: care about their privacy. People don't care about this, We
Speaker 6: don't think about it. I want everybody to understand, your
Speaker 6: data is you. It's your personhood. It's literally you in
Speaker 6: the digital age. Why in the world would we want
Speaker 6: to let someone else own us. It's ridiculous. It's time
Speaker 6: to take back what's ours, build a better version of
Speaker 6: the Internet.
Speaker 4: We now know what this thing is capable of. Let's
Speaker 4: just fix it.
Speaker 1: Frank, I want to say thanks for coming on. One
Speaker 1: critique of you though. You got to start thinking big
Speaker 1: and then you got to start opening up outside of them. Really,
Speaker 1: thank you for coming on and explaining that it's it's
Speaker 1: in the You're welcome.
Speaker 4: Let's fix it and enjoy it. Keep our kids safe.
Speaker 1: Thank you, buddy. Thanks for coming on, Frank. Important, we're
Speaker 1: talking to a hero. Look. I hope I hope it
Speaker 1: worked out. I hope it works out the way that
Speaker 1: it was explained that you can do it. And uh
Speaker 1: thanks for coming up. Oh look who's here? Look who's here?
Speaker 1: So we can see Uh, you know we should have
Speaker 1: place uside on the internet. Look at the friggin' bell.
Speaker 1: That's what we need.
Speaker 3: I'm a stunt double on this episode of Really, Really
Speaker 3: you did I?
Speaker 1: Did?
Speaker 7: I go to Chicago hope and budget? And did I?
Speaker 7: What other thing were you in? Do I go to
Speaker 7: deal or no deal? And go I have a better deal?
Speaker 7: Do I what what?
Speaker 1: Rob Court and.
Speaker 5: Frank McCourt shows up and now all of a sudden,
Speaker 5: save the.
Speaker 3: World, buddy, And I mean that really no, really, he's
Speaker 3: gonna save the world and you missed it?
Speaker 1: Where were you?
Speaker 5: And I still benefit from this your show?
Speaker 1: Did you have a doctor? Was that where you were
Speaker 1: a doctor's?
Speaker 5: Look at me?
Speaker 7: I got I don't know if you can say I
Speaker 7: got a bandage?
Speaker 1: Here?
Speaker 5: I got a bandage.
Speaker 1: She happened to you? Did you fall? It? Was it
Speaker 1: an elective?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 5: I didn't fall. You move the date of our tape?
Speaker 1: I didn't. I don't move any have no power in that.
Speaker 5: I waited a month to get this doctor appointment.
Speaker 7: I live in pain, Peter, not psychic pain like you,
Speaker 7: real physical pain.
Speaker 1: And It's not often you see a Jew complaining.
Speaker 7: I went to I had to go to Cedars to
Speaker 7: my hand doctor.
Speaker 5: I have ten denyed this. This I have is Frank.
Speaker 7: Can Frank McCourt pay for my medical conditions?
Speaker 1: You know what? Let's say, Frank be saving the world.
Speaker 1: But you know what, daff Frank up again, Jason's.
Speaker 3: I'll fill you in on what's happened so far. In
Speaker 3: the meantime, come take your seat.
Speaker 1: By the way, here's what you here's a big part
Speaker 1: of what you missed. I'm part of. You couldn't been
Speaker 1: a partner. There's gonna be breakthrough of a brand new Internet.
Speaker 1: And I'm sitting next to the guy I'm in the
Speaker 1: Consortium of Internet. He's right there.
Speaker 3: If you want such a Fetch, which is that the
Speaker 3: name of the site production name?
Speaker 1: We need a new name for the Internet. Do you
Speaker 1: have a name for that new Frank?
Speaker 5: What was wrong with what you said? I thought Fetch
Speaker 5: was very good.
Speaker 8: I'm dancing on him Fetch today. Did you catch my
Speaker 8: I didn't renegate on Fetch. I catched seven or eight
Speaker 8: times today, knocked out party. Frank, by the way, he's
Speaker 8: not Frank.
Speaker 1: Here we go buddy. Look, come in lady, gentlemen. Frank McCourt.
Speaker 7: Hi, Frank, let's start from the beginning. You know what,
Speaker 7: why what do you do for a living? I'm not
Speaker 7: familiar with you.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be one at this one and every one
Speaker 1: of those. I'll explain to you what happened, why you
Speaker 1: were going at the doc.
Speaker 7: Yeah, if you could. I don't want to take too
Speaker 7: much time, Can I say? Can I make an observation?
Speaker 7: And I don't mean to be this guy, but for
Speaker 7: a man who does a well as Frank mcca, I'm
Speaker 7: not that impressed with the room.
Speaker 1: That he's in. You don't realize that out that window
Speaker 1: was seven thousand acres. Well, remember the.
Speaker 7: Guy that we talked to that also knew the Internet,
Speaker 7: the early guy, and he had like he had a room.
Speaker 1: We thought, of course he was gymrasium. He was. It
Speaker 1: was so big a silicon volley.
Speaker 7: I'll take you to lunch because I feel terrible that
Speaker 7: I missed our interview.
Speaker 1: It's on me. I wouldn't even put you out. I
Speaker 1: hold you up.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna hold you to that.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna hold Mandel to him joining the big People's
Speaker 6: bit for TikTok.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 7: I ask a question you can how did it go?
Speaker 7: Did you enjoy how he's company?
Speaker 1: How is it? You know what? How he was really
Speaker 1: more than me? Yeah, because I was interested he was
Speaker 1: buying TikTok now he's eleven million followers, How he was
Speaker 1: investing with him, how he was really interested in in
Speaker 1: the influencer part of this, and how Frank could if
Speaker 1: he doesn't buy TikTok maybe still launch his initiative. What
Speaker 1: she's going to do. Yeah, I can't wait to hear
Speaker 1: this episode.
Speaker 7: This is gonna be my favorite episode because I won't
Speaker 7: anything that happened.
Speaker 1: No, you will, you wire, Oh, because it's going to
Speaker 1: be new to you. It's all going to be new
Speaker 1: to me. You'll hear it.
Speaker 7: It's as my mother says, Richard poor, you can do
Speaker 7: anything with money.
Speaker 1: No, it's good to see you. It was nice. And
Speaker 1: how he was here. We had we had him starting.
Speaker 7: By the way, seriously, thanks you having Billy, and that
Speaker 7: was really lovely. I got I got button traffic. And
Speaker 7: how he's now going to be poor. God knows you
Speaker 7: couldn't do this on your own. So I'm so glad
Speaker 7: how he was here oh did I go Google?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 7: David, by the way, last episode he laughed at that.
Speaker 1: Okay, goodbye day. So David, what what do you see?
Speaker 7: What do you hear that that was lacking? We didn't
Speaker 7: ask for a lot that was lacking. I'm sure when
Speaker 7: I'm not here, there's a big lie.
Speaker 1: It didn't have enough hair right with Yeah, I'm glad.
Speaker 4: Laurie has told me that we have to wrap it
Speaker 4: up anyway without me.
Speaker 1: You guys were so on the money, it's amazing. Well
Speaker 1: I have no money. Those two credit the money. No,
Speaker 1: we're the money and now how it's an interesting it's
Speaker 1: an interesting topic. It's going to be interesting to really
Speaker 1: and to see what happens with white dance and China. Hey,
Speaker 1: look at you, and you're just in time to say
Speaker 1: goodby Dia. Next time on Really No, Now Really.
Speaker 2: As another episode of Really No Really comes to a close,
Speaker 2: I know you're wondering how much money do social media
Speaker 2: apps make and where's that money coming from? Well, I'll
Speaker 2: add it all up for you in a moment, but
Speaker 2: first let's thank our guest, Frank McCourt. You can follow
Speaker 2: Frank on his company website McCourt dot com. And you
Speaker 2: can follow the progress of his Project to Liberty and
Speaker 2: the attempt to purchase tik dot on the websites projectiliberty
Speaker 2: dot io or the People's Bid dot com. You can
Speaker 2: also follow on Instagram and x where it is at
Speaker 2: pro underscore Jet to Liberty. Find all pertinent links in
Speaker 2: our show notes, our little show hangs out on Instagram,
Speaker 2: TikTok YouTube, and threads at really No Really podcasts. And
Speaker 2: of course you can share your thoughts and feedback with
Speaker 2: us online.
Speaker 5: At reallynoreally dot com.
Speaker 2: If you have a really some amazing factor story that
Speaker 2: boggles your mind, share it with us and if we
Speaker 2: use it, we will send you a little gift. Nothing
Speaker 2: life changing, obviously, but it's the thought that counts. Check
Speaker 2: out our full episodes on YouTube, hit that subscribe button
Speaker 2: and take that bell so you're updated when we release
Speaker 2: new videos and episodes, which we do each Tuesday. So
Speaker 2: listen and follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts
Speaker 2: or wherever you get your podcasts. And now the answer
Speaker 2: to the question how much money do social media apps
Speaker 2: make and where's that money coming from? Well, in lieu
Speaker 2: of subscriptions or membership bees social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat,
Speaker 2: TikTok x, and YouTube make their money from advertising, commercials
Speaker 2: and banner ads galore. The total take for these apps
Speaker 2: is nearly impossible to uncover, but in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: nearly eleven billion dollars of that revenue came from US
Speaker 2: based users younger than eighteen years old.
Speaker 1: It's right.
Speaker 2: The vast majority of social media advertising is focused on children,
Speaker 2: and of that eleven million, eight point six billion came
Speaker 2: from users thirteen to seventeen, while two point one came
Speaker 2: from users under the age of twelve. YouTube, Instagram, and
Speaker 2: Facebook were the favorites of the twelve and under group,
Speaker 2: while Instagram also led on users thirteen to seventeen, followed
Speaker 2: by TikTok and YouTube. In December of twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: a Harvard research team wrote, as concerns about youth mental
Speaker 2: health grows, more and more policymakers are trying to introduce
Speaker 2: legislation to curtail social media platform practices that may drive depression, anxiety,
Speaker 2: and disordered eating in young people. Although social media platforms clean,
Speaker 2: they can self regulate their practices to reduce the harms
Speaker 2: to young people, they have yet to do so.
Speaker 1: And our study suggests.
Speaker 2: They have overwhelming financial incentives to continue to delay taking
Speaker 2: meaningful steps to prit children. And with that, folks, it's
Speaker 2: good to know that the madness that is the Internet
Speaker 2: is specifically designed to engage people under the age of twelve.
Speaker 2: So hold that thought next time you're doom scrolling. And
Speaker 2: here's to Frank mccourton. Internet two point zero really, no,
Speaker 2: really is production of iHeartRadio and Blase Entertainment.