The social media platform TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, is set to be banned in the United States this Sunday unless a deal is reached to sell it to a U.S.-based investor or the U.S. Supreme Court steps in. This ban stems from a law signed by President Joe Biden in April and marks the first instance of the U.S. attempting to block access to an app with such a massive user base—approximately 170 million users nationwide.
To make it happen, the law targets a broad range of U.S.-based partners that facilitate TikTok's operation, making common workarounds like using a VPN or changing a device's region settings ineffective or difficult, according to experts cited by Reuters. At most, users might manage to access a limited web-based version of TikTok with fewer features than the app—if it works at all, experts noted. Here's a deeper look at how the ban could be enforced:
App 'rots'
The law won't require users to uninstall TikTok. However, TikTok reportedly plans to shut down its service, displaying a notification about the ban and giving users the option to download their personal data, Reuters previously revealed.
Even without a formal shutdown by TikTok, the app would still face significant disruptions. App store providers, such as Apple and Google, are explicitly prohibited from distributing TikTok to U.S. users. This means the app would be removed from their stores, and updates needed to fix bugs or improve performance would no longer be available. TikTok also depends on a continuous influx of new videos, which would be nearly impossible to sustain. The platform's U.S. user data is hosted on servers owned by Oracle, and experts largely agree that Oracle would be compelled to halt these operations.
Oracle, Apple, Google, and TikTok either declined to comment or did not respond to inquiries. In addition, more than 100 other service providers, including content delivery networks, play a role in ensuring TikTok runs smoothly. According to Joseph Lorenzo Hall, a distinguished technologist at the Internet Society, "Some of these services are essential for the app to function, both for delivering videos to users and for uploading content." Hall noted that uploading could be among the first functions to fail, leaving users to watch as the app gradually "rots."
The withdrawal of these service providers could even disrupt TikTok's functionality for users outside the U.S., though company engineers are reportedly working to mitigate such effects, sources told Reuters.
Workarounds and Challenges
One potential workaround for accessing TikTok would be to use a virtual private network (VPN) to hide a user's IP address and location. However, TikTok can still determine a user's location using other methods, like geolocation data from their phone, said Jason Kelley, director of activism for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Accessing TikTok via a browser and VPN is another option, but the web version lacks many features of the app. Moreover, if users need to create new accounts, the experience would lack the personalization of their previous profiles. "It won't offer a good user experience, nor will it be profitable for TikTok," Kelley explained.
Other users have suggested changing an iPhone's region settings to a different country. However, Apple documentation shows that this requires canceling existing app subscriptions and setting up a new payment method for the selected region—an inconvenient process. This has led to jokes, like Hall's quip that the ban might result in influencers carrying two phones, as many already do. Even altering region settings would not guarantee access. The law forbids Apple and other app store providers from distributing TikTok to U.S.-based users, meaning that to download the app, users would need to physically leave the United States. – Reuters