It's been almost exactly a year since the last significant threat of a TikTok ban in the United States. This time, a bill to ban the popular social media app from American shores passed by a unanimous vote in the House of Representatives. Given bipartisan support, the bill can pass the Senate and end up on President Joe Biden's desk within weeks.
The prospect of an outright ban in the United States now seems very real.
What this would mean, how it would work, and what comes next have largely remained unchanged since we wrote this story last year.
TikTok's endless stream of lip-sync videos, wishful thinking, and air fryer recipes may seem innocent enough, but the app now faces the very serious threat of a ban in the United States.
Over the past year, TikTok has been in the eye of a political storm that has seen it banned from government devices in the US, EU and now the UK. But it's the very real prospect of an outright ban on TikTok in the US that's worrying the app's millions of users.
The US government, including the current Biden administration, has investigated TikTok and its relationship with its China-based parent company for several years.
The app has responded to allegations that it collects and stores data from US users by making several changes, including moving all of its US data to Oracle servers. But none of this has assuaged US concerns that the app poses a threat to national security. Last year, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appeared before Congress to defend the app.
So what does all this mean for TikTok's hundreds of millions of global users and, in particular, the 150 million who live in the United States? Here's everything you need to know about the prospect of a TikTok ban in the US.
Why is the TikTok ban likely to happen?
The main accusation behind the possible ban of TikTok in the United States is that the application represents a threat to national security. But wait, aren't most TikTok videos just frivolous video game tutorials and clips from TV shows?
Yes, but the problem isn't so much the content as what TikTok could supposedly be doing with the underlying data it collects: about your likes and comments, and also where in the world you are and who you interact with.
For example, in February, FBI Director Christopher Wray expressed “extreme” concern about the possibility of China “weaponizing” data collected from TikTok fans in the United States.
This is due to the fact that TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, and Chinese law allows its government to force any company to hand over the data it has on its servers.
Another accusation made by Wray was that the Chinese government could pressure TikTok in a way that would allow it to “control the recommendation algorithm,” thus giving it enormous potential influence given that more people than ever get their news from TikTok and YouTube.
While there is currently no hard evidence that any of these practices are widespread on TikTok, it does collect (like Facebook and Instagram) a large amount of user data. Last year, four employees were also fired from TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, for allegedly collecting usage data from American journalists.
Whether or not all of this represents enough of a security risk for the US government to take the unprecedented step of an outright ban on TikTok remains to be seen. On March 7, 2023, a new bill made it easier for the US government to ban apps that pose a risk to national security.
But on March 22, 2023, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew argued that the app “has never shared US user data” and has a “responsibility to protect” its 150 million US users.
How would a TikTok ban work?
In fact, we've already seen the most likely way a TikTok ban would work in practice. In September 2020, the US Department of Commerce issued a ban ordering Apple and Google to remove TikTok and WeChat from their US app stores.
This ban was ultimately blocked by a federal judge and ultimately overturned by President Biden last year, but the incident gives us a glimpse of what could happen if TikTok's owners refuse to sell their stakes in the app.
If US users can't download TikTok from the iOS or Android app stores, that would exclude them from future updates. And after a while, this would probably result in the app no longer working on your smartphones.
It is also possible that the US government could prevent access to TikTok by identifying your IP address and preventing access to the web version of the app. But it's not yet clear if that's in play, and there would be possible ways around it.
Is there a way to avoid a potential TikTok ban?
While banning TikTok from appearing on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store would be a major hurdle to using the app in the US, there could be possible solutions if that were to happen.
The most obvious way would be to use one of the best mobile VPNs to change your location (at least in the eyes of your ISP). While this would cost a month, the method could work as long as you choose a server located in a country where TikTok is not banned.
Our top mobile VPN right now is ExpressVPN, although NordVPN and Surfshark are also good options. That said, there's a chance that even these VPNs won't be able to bypass the TikTok ban in the US.
TikTok says it “collects your approximate location information based on your device or network information, such as SIM card and IP address.” In theory, this means that your device could still use that approximate location data to ban you from using the service.
If that's the case, your best hope may be the emergence of TikTok spin-off apps, which is what happened in India when the country banned the app in 2020.
