Americans could soon need one of the best VPN apps to keep using TikTok.
A US TikTok ban now looks more probable than ever following the decision made by the federal appeals court on Friday (December 6, 2024). The decision upholds a law requiring TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the video-sharing app to an American firm by January 19, 2025, or face a nationwide ban.
While TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew plans to file a legal appeal with the US Supreme Court, the new Trump administration – set to commence a day after the divesting deadline – is also expected to reverse TikTok’s new policy.
Tensions between the US government and TikTok aren’t new. The platform’s invasive data collection practices and ties to China have raised concerns over Americans’ privacy rights and national security risks since the video-sharing app began gaining popularity in the States.
At the time, US President Donald Trump was the first to push for the Chinese company to divest or risk a total ban in 2020. Such plans would later be interrupted after TikTok filed a lawsuit against the US government and the new President Joe Biden revoked the measure.
Now, about four years later, the tables have turned again. Trump has vowed to save TikTok during his political campaign to, as the Financial Times reported, “preserve competition in a market dominated by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta.”
On the contrary, Biden has been busy finding a solution to the TikTok problem since the end of 2022 when he first signed an unprecedented order to bar TikTok from all federal government devices.
After that, there were various attempts to find a way to overcome the legal challenges of banning TikTok, such as the First Amendment which protects American freedom of speech. The proposed RESTRICT ACT gained momentum in 2023 but didn’t manage to finally get the green light.
Montana was the first US state expected to ban TikTok from all devices starting from January 1, 2024. This didn’t happen, however, as a federal judge blocked the law before being enforced, in November 2023. Now, following Friday’s decision, the fate of Montana’s TikTok ban may be turning again.
Fast-forward to April 2024, a new proposal (Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act) became law after gaining bipartisan support in the US House of Representatives. It rules out a widespread ban on TikTok’s operation unless ByteDance sells it to an American firm.
The law came into force despite TikTok taking steps to ensure data privacy for US users. In 2022, the company moved all Americans’ data to servers owned by Oracle US and based within the country. The company also opened the first data center in Europe a year later on similar grounds.
Perhaps the most downloaded app worldwide, TikTok counts over 150 active users per month in the US alone.
Researchers suggest that Americans are increasingly using the app to keep up with the news. US activists use the Chinese social media giant to spread their messages, too, while it also helps US businesses – especially the smallest ones – to thrive.
This is why digital rights experts are concerned following the decision the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit filed on Friday.
Kate Ruane from the Centre for Democracy & Technology (CDT) told TechRadar: “The TikTok ban will immeasurably harm the free expression of hundreds of millions of TikTok users in the US and globally who use the app to create, to share information, to get their news, and promote their businesses. We hope the next phase of review of this misguided and overbroad law will be a chance to right this wrong and prevent it from going into effect.”
A VPN (short for virtual private network) is security software that encrypts all your internet connections, to prevent third-party access, while spoofing your real IP address location. The latter is exactly what you need to bypass geo-restrictions on social media platforms, like those that could soon be enforced in the US against TikTok.
In case ByteDance refuses to sell by January 19, US authorities could block TikTok usage at an ISP (internet service provider) level. In this scenario, using a TikTok VPN will be an easy way to get around the block simply by connecting to a VPN server located outside the US, in a country where TikTok isn’t banned.
Another option may be for the US government to order app stores to completely remove TikTok from their platforms. This means you won’t be able to download and install the app from the official stores and will, instead, need to find an alternative source.
Experts warn that such a move, however, would de-facto put user data at major risk, as US users won’t be able to keep updating their TikTok application to fix security bugs. Also, risks for malware infection are also greater when downloading apps from unofficial stores.