When TikTok Is Blocked In The US, VPN Will Not Help!

JAKARTA - TikTok's social media app, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, will be banned in the United States on Sunday 19 January, unless an agreement is reached to sell it to US investors or the US Supreme Court intervenes.

The ban comes from a law signed by President Joe Biden in April 2024. This is the first US effort to stop access to applications with a very large user base, around 170 million domestic users.

The 'rotting' App

The law does not force users to delete the TikTok app. However, TikTok plans to shut down its services and will display a message to users about this ban, as well as offer them to download their personal data.

While TikTok doesn't plan an official shutdown, it won't work the way it was before. App store providers, such as Apple and Google, are explicitly prohibited from distributing TikTok to US users, meaning the app will be removed from their stores and there will be no more updates to fix bugs.

TikTok also relies on a constant flow of new video content, which will become nearly impossible to deliver. TikTok data for US users is hosted and processed on servers owned by Oracle, which many experts say will most likely stop operations.

More than 100 other service providers, such as the content delivery network (CDN), also play a role in making TikTok run smoothly. If this service is stopped, activities such as uploading videos will likely be one of the first to malfunction.

Complicated Alternative Solutions

The simplest solution to keep accessing TikTok is to use a virtual private network (VPN) that can hide the user's internet protocol address (IP). However, TikTok has other ways to find out the user's location, such as geolocation data from a cellphone.

Users can also try accessing the TikTok web version via a browser when using VPN, but this version of the web has features that are more limited than the app. If users have to create a new account, the service will not be personalized according to their preferences.

Some users are considering changing the country's settings on their iPhone to other countries to keep using TikTok. However, this step requires cancellation of existing app subscriptions and preparing a new payment method for the country, which is considered a hassle.

Termination of this service can also affect millions of TikTok users outside the US. However, TikTok engineers are working to address the issue.

For some users and influencers, the only option is to buy a second device specifically used for TikTok. But even this step does not guarantee full access to the app if the user remains in the United States region.