TikTok ban: What happens to the app after Sunday’s deadline?

With a potential TikTok ban looming, millions of American users are wondering what could happen to both their apps and accounts if the ban goes into effect in a few days.

The ban law, passed by Congress with a broad bipartisan majority and signed by President Biden last April, gave TikTok until January 19 to either withdraw from ByteDance, or face a ban in the United States.

TikTok has not publicly announced what users can expect on Sunday if the ban goes into effect, though cybersecurity experts agree that the ban does not necessarily mean the app will suddenly disappear from US devices come midnight.

The ban hinges on a decision from the Supreme Court, which accepted TikTok’s challenge to the withdrawal or ban law on an accelerated timeline. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week and expressed sympathy for the government’s national security concerns with TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

Here’s what might happen if the ban goes into effect on Sunday:

TikTok is no longer available in app stores and has become buggy for existing users 

The Divestment Act, officially known as the “Protecting Americans from Foreign-Controlled Apps by Foreign Adversaries Act,” makes it illegal for U.S. app stores — such as those run by Google or Apple — and web hosting services to distribute TikTok to their users. .

As a result, the app will be pulled from app stores and will not be available for new downloads.

However, existing downloads are unlikely to be removed – at least initially – on US devices.

“TikTok can’t do anything, and if the App Store removed the service — removed the ability to download the app — that wouldn’t immediately cause a problem for most users,” said Jason Kelly, director of activism at the digital rights nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation. .

But with no updates coming from app stores, the app is likely to become more glitchy and eventually non-functional for users in the US.

“The mistakes will come from the fact that TikTok could overnight, or over several weeks or months, kind of phase out the service,” Kelly said, adding: “If I were to bet, that’s what we’re seeing.” Within 48 hours, most users will see some sort of connection error when they go to download TikTok.

These errors can include visuals failing to load, and the inability to click on links or see content posted after the ban takes effect, Kelly said.

TikTok is immediately shutting down the app in the US

While TikTok has not publicly confirmed its plans, one report has claimed that the company intends to immediately shut down its app for US users on Sunday.

Unless the Supreme Court overturns the ban, TikTok plans to make the app unusable for people in the United States once the ban goes into effect, The Information reported Tuesday, citing two people familiar with TikTok’s plans.

Under the plan, users who try to open the TikTok app will be greeted with a message directing them to a website with information about the ban, The Information reports. The outlet added that users will be given the option to download their data but will not be able to use the app.

TikTok’s lawyer, Noel Francisco, told the Supreme Court last week that the platform would “go dark” unless judges intervene before the deadline.

“They could choose to exit the market out of concern about the impact,” Jennifer Huddleston, a senior fellow in technology policy at the Cato Institute, told The Hill.

TikTok did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment on the report or its plans for Sunday.

Users try to use a VPN 

Internet experts predict that many users will try to use a virtual private network (VPN) to hide their IP address and access the application.

“What could happen is people will try to download a new version of TikTok, because the version on their phone no longer works, and they can’t get it through the app stores,” Kelly said.

Kelly noted that using a VPN or alternative channel is not without risks. He expected black market sites or hackers to try to take advantage of the influx of people searching for how to download TikTok under the ban.

“The concern I would like people to consider is that if you can’t download the same app from a reputable source, are you downloading an app that has been tampered with in some way?” He said. “I think this could be a possible outcome that people would end up with a piece of spyware on their phone.”

“It will increase the likelihood that if you’re trying to find an access point to the software, you’ll end up with something that’s not actually TikTok and something potentially dangerous,” he added.

Rush to alternative applications

Cutting off access to an app used by more than 170 million Americans will likely push TikTokers to look for alternatives to the platform they’ve used for the past seven years.

The flow to alternative apps has already started this week. Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu rose to become the most downloaded free app on Apple’s App Store in the United States on Tuesday.

 The Chinese app, which translates to “Little Red Book” in English, offers short videos, publishing and e-commerce capabilities. The app has soared in popularity in China and other regions in recent years, and now has more than 300 million monthly active users.

Thousands of American users joined the Xiaohongshu app earlier this week, calling themselves “TikTok refugees” to protest the impending ban. Many of these American users were observed interacting with users apparently residing in China, who were teaching the Americans how to navigate the app and switch the language from Mandarin.

Lemon8, another app owned by ByteDance, also rose on the charts for downloads this week. The app has similar features to other popular apps, offering photo or carousel uploading like Instagram and a dedicated video component like TikTok.

Despite the early excitement around these apps, it’s unclear whether they will eventually face the same challenges in the United States or whether users will want to stick with them in the long term.

The recall or ban law only applies to TikTok, ByteDance and their affiliates, meaning Lemon8 is likely to face similar challenges, but not other unrelated platforms.

However, Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Center for Cyber ​​and Technology Innovation, said the law will help pave the way for future challenges to apps owned by foreign adversaries to move faster.

“I feel good that the TikTok matter is being handled this way. I remain concerned that there are ongoing, widespread information operations against the United States by our adversaries that are not generally acknowledged.

TikTok was eventually pulled 

Even if the ban comes into effect, this does not prevent TikTok from divesting from ByteDance in the future.

Several companies and billionaires are rumored to be interested in purchasing the social media platform, and President-elect Trump, who will be sworn in the day after the ban takes effect, has indicated that he wants to find a solution to keep TikTok active in the United States.

However, a divestiture deal may take more than just a few days.

“This is going to be a big deal, and large transactions usually take a certain degree of time,” Huddleston said. “Yes, it can happen very quickly, but even if there is a buyer, it usually doesn’t happen overnight.”

“This is also happening at a time when there is a lot of scrutiny of technology acquisitions,” she continued, likely referring to the anticompetitive scrutiny that big tech companies have faced in recent years.

Biden has the option to extend the ban for 90 days before leaving the White House, but that would require ByteDance and TikTok to prove that divestment negotiations are making progress.

Huddleston noted that Trump, once in office, could also look to his allies in Congress to pass legislation to extend the deadline.