The Supreme Court is considering whether to block a law that effectively bans TikTok in the U.S. starting January 19. This news explores the potential consequences of the ban, workarounds users can explore, and the political landscape surrounding the app's future.
Even if the controversial U.S. ban on TikTok does take effect on January 19, the app won't automatically vanish from phones. Here's what would change, plus preparations and potential workarounds. The Supreme Court is currently considering whether to block a law that effectively bans TikTok in the U.S. starting January 19. The fate of TikTok — and its 170 million American users — hangs in the balance, as the Supreme Court weighs the constitutionality of this law.
This doesn't mean that the viral video app will automatically disappear from people's phones or that individuals will risk punishment just for logging in. But it will get harder for the platform's users in the U.S. to access the app, says Kate Ruane, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology (which joined an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court). 'I think the biggest obvious result of this law going into effect is that … it's going to require more technical savvy to access TikTok,' Ruane told NPR. 'And that in and of itself is going to be too big of a barrier for lots and lots of people to continue to access TikTok or to continue to try to use TikTok as a service.' TikTok officials say it is possible that on January 19, when U.S. users try to open the app, a prompt will show up indicating the service is no longer available in the country. This is what happens when someone tries to launch TikTok in India, which banned the app in 2020. It's also possible that users will be able to access the app but it may be buggy, operate slowly or crash often, the TikTok official said.The law, which President Biden signed into law in April 2024, grants the government the authority to ban foreign-owned apps that it deems a threat to national security. While the law concerns TikTok, it actually targets the companies that make the platform accessible in the U.S., including app stores like Apple's App Store and Google Play, as well as cloud service providers like Oracle. The fine print makes it illegal for any such entities to 'distribute, maintain, or update (or enable the distribution, maintenance, or updating of) a foreign adversary controlled application' either through a marketplace or internet hosting services. Both Apple and Google have been warned by the government to take steps to ensure they can 'fully comply with this requirement' by the deadline — which would have an immediate impact on users. 'If you already have on your phone, it's not going to disappear from your phone on January 19 or January 20,' Ruane says. 'It will, however, very likely disappear from application stores.' And without the ability to update, the platform won't be able to fix bugs, add features or address security concerns. Eventually, Ruane says, it may also become incompatible with the operating system of certain phones. 'Over time … the service that you get with the application will be worse and worse and worse,' she adds, though it's too soon to tell whether that will be a matter of days, weeks or months. 'The other thing is to remember that even after this law takes effect, if it does, it will not be illegal for them to continue to use TikTok if they have it on their phones already — or even if they manage to acquire it from some other source than an app store,' she says. 'This law will not apply to individual people accessing TikTok.' One of the most discussed workarounds is something called a virtual private network (VPN), which encrypts users' location data and makes it look like they are accessing content from another country. They are commonly used in countries with strict internet restrictions to access blocked social media platforms, streaming services and other geographically limited content. 'Even as the application degrades on your phone, you may still be able to access it through a virtual private network on a web browser,' Ruane says. There are also ways to download TikTok outside the Google and Apple app stores, through processes respectively known as 'sideloading' and 'jailbreaking.' 'It is a barrier to accessing the application, and it is also something that you would have to weigh, like 'Is it really worth it to me to access TikTok, to do all of this or learn how to do all of these required technical things?'' she says. 'And I think for a fair number of users who are just casually using the application, the answer will probably be no.' It's no coincidence that the potential ban would take effect on January 19, the last full day of Biden's term. That puts the ball in the court of President-elect Donald Trump, who has his own strong views on TikTok. During his first term, he has since become a staunch defender of the platform and even asked the Supreme Court last month to overturn the ban. As Ruane sees it, Trump has three choices for how to proceed once in office, and all of them are complicated. 'He could, of course, just simply let it go through and allow the ban to go into effect,' Ruane says. 'That's pretty straightforward, but it's also politically incredibly difficult to do because it would require the changing of votes for many, many, many members of Congress.'
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