How the TikTok Ban in the US Could Work

The law states that it “shall not be unlawful” for organizations to “distribute, store or modify” the software including its source code, or to “provide services” that allow it to continue to function in its current state. The distribution, processing, or modifications may be, the law says, through mobile stores that can be found in the US or by “providing online support services.”

“The law deliberately avoided saying it’s illegal to have this app on your phone,” says Milton Mueller, a professor and co-founder of the Internet Governance Project at the Georgia Institute of Technology, which filed the lawsuit. amicus brief to the Supreme Court against the ban. “Their test is that nobody new can download it from the Apple or Google Store, and nobody who has it can change it in those stores,” says Mueller. “There is no law that says ‘TikTok you have to ban US users,’ which is also interesting.”

If TikTok is removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in the US, it will not be possible to install new updates that will add new features, fix bugs within the code, or eliminate security flaws. Over time, it means that TikTok will stop working properly. Apple did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment, while Google declined to comment on what it would do if the law went into effect.

Another purpose of the law is to prevent “hosting” companies from providing support to TikTok – and the implications are many. Hosting companies “may include file hosting, domain name hosting, cloud hosting, and private server hosting,” the law says. Starting in the summer of 2022, TikTok has faced challenges from its Chinese owners, the company said received US user data within Oracle’s cloud services. Oracle also did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

However, other systems such as supply networks, advertising networks, payment providers, etc. are used as part of TikTok’s infrastructure. The law does not specifically mention these services, but the reading of the law makes it questionable whether they help to “maintain” or “distribute” the work of TikTok.

Hall says a recent test of TikTok’s site showed 185 integrated communities on the site. “They pull code, content from third parties and their own domains,” he says. “These programs will begin to rot and decay if services are left out of service, things like distribution networks or services that seem to be less vulnerable to language ambiguity or pressure from the incoming administration.”

There is one internet content player that the ban does not directly enforce: internet service providers. Countries such as Russia and China have developed censorship measures that allow them to block entire websites from being accessed via the Internet. Mueller believes that this action by US lawmakers was done on purpose, as it avoids implementing a Chinese-style Internet firewall. “They knew that ISP-based blocking and filtering would obviously be a First Amendment violation,” he says.

Avoiding TikTok Bans

Although TikTok’s activity in the US may slow down over time, there are ways to overcome any ban – both for individuals and for the company. How effective this will be depends on how motivated people are to use TikTok and what the company decides to do.

“TikTok has 170 million users,” said Alan Rozenshtein, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, who favors the law but says it’s “a very good decision” regarding TikTok. “The law is not going to prevent any of them from accessing TikTok. I don’t think that was the intent of the law. The law is to make it harder to access TikTok.”