A months-long fight by lawmakers to ban social media app TikTok in the United States will come to a head on Friday when the Supreme Court hears arguments that will decide the fate of the app for 170 million U.S. users. is expected to reach.
If TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is banned on January 19th, users can expect the following to happen:
Will TikTok still be available for download on the app store?
no. A law passed by Congress last year would make it illegal for app stores from companies like Apple and Google to distribute or issue updates to TikTok, at a cost of $5,000 per U.S. user, potentially reaching hundreds of billions of dollars. You may be subject to large civil fines. dollar.
If TikTok is banned, it will likely disappear from app stores overnight. (Apple and Google have not commented on their plans to remove the app.)
Apple has long complied with foreign governments that ordered them to remove apps in their countries. For example, in April last year, Apple removed communication apps such as WhatsApp, Signal, Threads, and Telegram from the Chinese app store at the request of the Chinese government.
If I already downloaded the TikTok app, will it still be on my phone?
yes. By law, it is not illegal to install the TikTok app on your phone.
“The text of the law is about future downloads and updates,” said Dean Ball, a research fellow at the Mercatus Center think tank at George Mason University. “It's not about removing apps from people's phones.”
However, without ByteDance's ability to issue updates to TikTok via the app store, the app will likely become less functional over time. Still, advertisers expect some uptake in the U.S. after the ban, and as of last month, Craig Atkinson, chief executive of digital marketing agency Code 3, said that as of last month, advertisers were still looking to advertise on the app. A new contract is still being signed.
TikTok could also step in before the app degrades and prevent users in the U.S. from accessing videos on its platform after January 19th.
In India, which banned TikTok in 2020, users of the app are shown a “service unavailable” screen and blocked from the platform.
TikTok has not said whether it will restrict access if the app is banned and did not respond to requests for comment.
Will TikTok still be accessible through my internet browser?
No, this law also applies to internet hosting companies, as does the prohibition on hosting apps by app store companies.
However, users may still be able to access TikTok if they use a virtual private network (VPN) that encrypts their location.
Atkinson said the ban “could even be a big business boost for VPN providers.”
Could President-elect Donald J. Trump step in and save the app?
Some experts predict that President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has voiced support for TikTok, will instruct his attorney general not to enforce the law, leading to Apple and Google deciding not to comply with the law. I think it's possible.
“But I would be very surprised if Apple and Google did that, unless it added some new information to the equation,” Ball said.
JB Ferguson, Capstone's managing director of technology, said it's possible Mr. Trump might change his mind or even use the threat of enforcement as leverage against both companies.
“Even if you believe in President Trump, if you don't take the law seriously, I don't think you're properly protecting shareholder value,” Ferguson said of Apple and Google.
