Can you still use TikTok if it is banned? This is what would happen with the app

President Joe Biden signed into law the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act in April 2024 which allows US presidents to ban other apps owned by firms “controlled by a foreign adversary.” The law was put to use right away for TikTok, the widely popular short-video sharing platform, which is owned by ByteDance, a company based in China. TikTok’s owners have been given 180 days to sell the app before the ban on the social media platform takes effect.

That deadline is fast approaching with the ban set to begin January 19, unless the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on Friday challenging the law on First Amendment grounds, puts the ban on hold or overturns the law. Concerns over the ban has sent some users searching for alternatives to TikTok. But what about those Americans that are hooked on the app and don’t want to give it up?

What will happen if the TikTok ban goes into effect?

Should the Supreme Court rule quickly upholding the law passed by Congress last year, or there is no injunction, users may not be able to use the app outright come January 19 if ByteDance follows through on its threat to plug the plug on the app. However, if that is just grandstanding, then it will still be available to users to access. But without a new non-adversarial owner, the user experience on the platform will begin to deteriorate.

While the law doesn’t punish the people that use TikTok, any US app store, like Apple or Google, that violates the ban could be fined up to $5,000 per user. Also, companies would be banned from doing business with the app. This would mean a death by a thousand cuts over time.

Users would no longer be able to download updates for the app, since Apple and Google would be barred from supplying them. That would mean over time TikTok would function more slowly, become buggy and eventually unusable.

Could you use a VPN to access TikTok?

There are always cracks in any wall. However, using a virtual private network (VPN) may not be a sure-fire way to keep using TikTok for American users. Douglas Schmidt, an engineering professor at Vanderbilt told CNBC that “There will almost always be ways around this. It would just be a lot more difficult for the average person to do it without getting an advanced degree in computer security or something.”

Furthermore, Gerald Kasulis, a vice president at NordVPN, told the media outlet that technology exists which can detect users trying to access an app via a VPN. Not to mention that a user’s location would be discovered when app store credentials to download upgrades were asked for.

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