What happens if TikTok is banned?

Getty Images A woman with straight black hair smiles. She is in the studio of the Jimmy Fallon show.Getty Images
US influencer Charli D’Amelio could misplace access to her 150m followers if the ban went ahead

TikTok will be banned in the US on 19 January – unless the Supreme Court accepts a last ditch legal bid from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, that to do so would be unconstitutional.

But even if the country’s highest judicial authority agrees with the lower courts – and Congress – that the platform is a threat to national safety will that actually stop Americans using it?

Will there be ways to bypass the ban – or could president-elect Donald Trump discover a way to stop a law he says he opposed to, even if the courts uphold it.

And whatever happens to TikTok, who stands to advantage from the uncertainty clouding its upcoming?

Can people still use TikTok even if it’s banned?

The most likely way the US would ban TikTok is to order app stores, such as the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store, to make it unavailable for download in that region.

US lawmakers have already told tech firms to be ready to remove the app from their stores if a ban comes into force.

That would cruel people could no longer use a legitimate means to access TikTok – though it would also cruel people who’ve already got it would still have it on their phones.

Because the app would not be publicly available anymore, recent updates could no longer be delivered to users in the US – which would make the app buggier and, eventually, unusable.

Not to mention that many updates are provided to fix safety holes in apps, so if TikTok stopped getting updates that could now hackers with millions of devices to target.

Getty Images A group of young people holding a sign reading 'Keep TikTok' stand in cold-weather clothes outside the Supreme Court in the US.Getty Images
Protestors continue to gather outside the Supreme Court in a last-ditch bid to convince lawmakers to listen to their plight

Of course, there are ways around such a ban.

There are already many videos circulating on TikTok informing users how to use a VPN (virtual private network) – a way of making it appear as if you are in another region.

The region of app stores can also be changed on most devices, so anyone can theoretically access apps from other countries – though this may factor other problems, not to mention likely breaking terms of service agreements.

It is also feasible to install apps downloaded from the internet by modifying a device – which may shatter copyright law – and comes with its own risks. However the government has also anticipated this so is also proposing to ban “internet hosting services” from giving people access to the app.

So if the ban took this benevolent of form it seems likely that those who are determined to use TikTok after it comes into result will be able to do so – but it won’t be the encounter they are used to.

How else could TikTok be banned?

There are still other routes available to the government down the road – for example, after India banned TikTok in 2020, it ordered internet providers to block access to the app altogether.

And even if people did use a VPN, there are still ways TikTok could theoretically judge whether a person is based in the US – and then simply now them with a screen saying the app is not available in their country.

It remains to be seen whether TikTok would decide to assist the government in its own ban – but it is being reported by Reuters that it plans to do so.

TikTok’s own lawyer told the Supreme Court that he believes the app will “leave dim” in the US unless it rules in its favour.

The complexity of the issue means even the experts are ambiguous about what happens next.

Professor Milton L. Mueller of the Georgia Institute of Technology – who filed a legal brief in back of TikTok – said a lack of clarity around how far the US could extend its authority to enforce the law makes knowing what technically happens if a ban goes ahead challenging to determine.

But he said what was obvious was the impact it would have on users and the internet itself.

“It would totally legitimise the fragmentation of the internet along national or jurisdictional boundaries,” he said.

Will Trump still be able to intervene?

Getty Images Donald Trump stands with a neutral expression on his face.Getty Images

Trump has been obvious he does not desire the law to arrive into force, asking the Supreme Court to delay its implementation while he seeks a “political answer.”

But, should the justices uphold it, Trump does not have the power to overturn the law, which would arrive into result the day before he returns to office.

But he could simply inform the Department of fairness not to enforce it.

The government would be effectively telling Apple and Google that they won’t be punished for continuing to allow access to TikTok, meaning the law would remain in place but would essentially be redundant.

Obviously, the firms might be uncomfortable about breaking the law even if they’ve been told it’s fine – as it would be effectively requiring them to receive the president’s word for it that they won’t face punishment.

What platforms could people turn to instead?

TikTok says it has 170 million users in the US who, on average, spent 51 minutes per day on the app in 2024.

Ban TikTok or make it less usable and that creates a huge chance for its large tech rivals says Jasmine Enberg, analyst at Insider Intelligence.

“Meta-owned Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, owned by Google, are the most natural fits for displaced users, creators, and advertisers,” she says.

Facebook could advantage too, though Ms Enberg says, in ordinary with all Meta platforms, the controversial policy changes announced by boss Mark Zuckerberg could potentially lessen its appeal.

Users bring advertisers – so a ban could be a large monetary boost to those platforms.

“Chief Marketing Officers who we’ve spoken with confirmed that they will divert their media dollars to Meta and Google if they can no longer advertise on TikTok – this is the same behaviour we saw in India when they banned TikTok in 2020”, said Forrester capital analyst Kelsey Chickering.

Lemon8, which is also owned by ByteDance, would have been an obvious place for people to leave following a ban – but the law stipulates it also applies to other apps owned or operated by the firm. This means Lemon8 is probably also going to face being made inaccessible in the US.

Other potential winners include Twitch, which made its name on hosting livestreams – a popular characteristic on TikTok. Twitch is well known particularly to gamers, though it continues to develop with other content.

Other Chinese-owned platforms, such as Xiaohongshu – known as RedNote among its US users – have seen rapid growth in the US and the UK.

Still, some recommend no existing app can truly replace TikTok, in particular its characteristic TikTok Shop, which lets users purchase products directly from videos, and makes a lot of money for US creators.

Craig Atkinson, CEO of digital marketing agency Code3, said there was no direct competitor that people could easily switch to – and notes his agency was signing recent contracts with clients to construct TikTok Shop campaigns as late as December.

Could a recent buyer still emerge?

Getty Images Shou Zi Chew wearing a sharp suit with short hair speaking at an event.Getty Images
TikTok’s boss Shou Zi Chew has always refuted the concept of selling off part of the platform

Up until now, ByteDance has been resolute that no sale of its prize resource in the US is on the table.

But could that transformation if it is actually banned – and when a president who prides himself on “the art of the deal” returns to the White House?

Potential buyers continue to line up – with Bloomberg information reporting on Tuesday that the firm was looking at a sale to billionaire Elon Musk, though TikTok has since described this as “pure falsehood”.

Trump’s former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and billionaire businessman Frank McCourt are among those who have previously expressed an profit in buying it.

Mr McCourt, a former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball throng, said he had secured $20 billion in verbal commitments from a consortium of investors to bid for TikTok.

There is an even more leftfield – and considerably less solemn – proposed owner.

The biggest YouTuber in the globe MrBeast has claimed he’s now in the running to make a deal after he had billionaires reaching out to him about it.

Though it may seem like a joke, he has a significant monetary incentive to try and save the app – MrBeast has more than 100m followers on TikTok.



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