Can you still use TikTok if it’s banned? What users should know about the app.

The months-long fight by lawmakers to ban the social media app TikTok in the United States came to a head Friday when the Supreme Court heard arguments to decide the app’s fate for its 170 million American users.

While judges across the ideological spectrum asked tough questions of both sides, the overall tone and thrust seemed to suggest greater skepticism toward arguments from lawyers for TikTok and its users that the First Amendment barred Congress from enacting the law.

If TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is banned on January 19, here’s what they can expect to happen:

No. The law passed by Congress last year would make it illegal for the app stores of companies like Apple and Google to distribute or publish updates on TikTok at the risk of severe civil penalties: $5,000 per American user, which could amount to hundreds of billions of dollars. dollars. dollars.

If TikTok were banned, it would likely disappear from app stores overnight. (Apple and Google have not commented on their plans to remove the app.)

Apple has long respected foreign governments who have ordered apps removed in their countries. Last April, for example, Apple pulled communications apps such as WhatsApp, Signal, Threads and Telegram from its app store in China at the request of the Chinese government.

YES. The law does not make it illegal to have the TikTok app on your phone.

“The letter of the law is about future downloads and updates,” said Dean Ball, a research fellow at the Mercatus Center, a think tank at George Mason University. “It’s not about taking the app off people’s phones.”

But without the ability for ByteDance to release updates to TikTok via app stores, the app will likely degrade over time. However, advertisers expect some use in the U.S. after the ban, and as of last month, new deals are still being signed to advertise on the app, said Craig Atkinson, chief executive of Code3, a digital marketing agency .

TikTok could also step in before the app degrades and blocks its users in the US from accessing videos on the platform after January 19.

In India, which banned TikTok in 2020, users of the app are shown a screen that says “Service Unavailable” and blocks users from its platform.

TikTok has not said whether it will restrict access to the app if it is banned and did not respond to a request for comment.

No. In addition to prohibiting app store companies from hosting the app, the law also applies to internet hosting companies.

It’s likely, however, that users will still have access to TikTok if they use a virtual private network, or VPN, that encrypts a user’s location.

The ban “could also represent a major business boost for VPN providers,” Atkinson said.

Some experts believe it is possible that Apple and Google will decide not to comply with the law, betting that President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has come out in support of TikTok, would order his attorney general not to enforce it.

“But unless there is new information to add to the equation, I would be very surprised if Apple and Google did this,” Ball said.

Trump could also change his mind, or even use the threat of enforcement as leverage against the two companies, said JB Ferguson, a technology-focused managing director at Capstone.

“I don’t think you adequately defend shareholder value if you don’t take the law seriously, even if you believe Trump,” Ferguson said of Apple and Google.

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