Downloads, Trump and VPNs: Every little thing to Know Earlier than the TikTok Ban

The Supreme Courtroom on Friday upheld a legislation that successfully bans the social media app TikTok within the US. The legislation was signed by President Joe Biden final 12 months and requires the app to be offered by its Chinese language mother or father firm ByteDance by Sunday.

The court docket mentioned whereas TikTok is “a particular and expansive outlet for expression, technique of engagement, and supply of group,” Congress decided {that a} sale is required to “handle its well-supported nationwide safety issues relating to TikTok’s knowledge assortment practices and relationship with a overseas adversary.”

If the corporate would not promote the app by Sunday, here is what US social media customers ought to count on.

Will I be capable to obtain TikTok to my cellphone?

Below the legislation, app shops run by firms like Apple and Google should take away the app from their shops in a single day or face civil penalties. Meaning you will not be capable to obtain the app to your system, and it additionally means ByteDance will not be capable to concern updates to the app.

Will I nonetheless be capable to entry TikTok if I have already got it?

If you have already got the app downloaded to your system, sure. The legislation would not make it unlawful to have the app in your cellphone.

Since app shops will not be capable to distribute updates to the app after the legislation goes into impact, your expertise with the app could degrade over time and even grow to be insecure. It is unclear how lengthy the app will work in your system with out common updates.

Will I be capable to entry TikTok from an online browser?

No, the legislation applies to app shops and web suppliers alike. 

Might TikTok simply cease working within the US?

Sure, there’s a probability TikTok might cease working within the US altogether.

In keeping with the tech web site The Data, sources mentioned TikTok was making ready to close the app down for US customers on Sunday, the identical day the legislation would go into impact. Meaning even you probably have the app in your system, it will not work. If the app had been to close down completely within the US, it will be a step past what the legislation requires. The report additionally mentioned that TikTok plans to offer individuals the choice to obtain their knowledge to allow them to take account of their private data. 

TikTok didn’t reply to CNET’s request for remark.

How do I hold my posts and movies I like?

TikTok permits you to obtain your posts and posts out of your favourite creators. This is the best way to obtain posts out of your favourite creators earlier than Sunday.

1. Open TikTok. 
2. Faucet the Share button on a submit — it is the arrow on the appropriate aspect of your display screen.
3. Faucet Save Video.

This is the best way to save your personal posts.

1. Open TikTok. 
2. Go to your profile.
3. Faucet a submit.
4. Faucet the three dots (…) on the appropriate aspect of your display screen.
5. Faucet Save Video.

The app will save these posts to your picture library.

Might I take advantage of a VPN to entry TikTok?

You would doubtlessly use a VPN in your cellphone or browser to entry TikTok, sure. 

“A digital non-public community is a privateness software that hides your IP handle by sending your web site visitors via a distant server,” CNET’s Moe Lengthy writes. “If I am in New York, however tunneling via a London server with ExpressVPN, Disney Plus thinks I am throughout the pond.”

A VPN might make it look to TikTok such as you’re accessing it from the UK, or one other nation the place it isn’t banned, when actually you are within the US. 

You would additionally doubtlessly use a proxy server to entry TikTok. A proxy server, like a VPN, masks your IP handle by sending your site visitors via one other server first. The primary distinction between the 2 is {that a} proxy server would not supply as complete privateness protections as a VPN does.

Might President-elect Trump save TikTok?

It is unclear right now. The legislation would take impact Sunday, sooner or later earlier than the president-elect’s inauguration. So even when Trump needs to do one thing concerning the legislation, it will nonetheless go into impact for a minimum of that sooner or later. 

Trump’s legal professionals filed an amicus temporary within the case two weeks in the past, asking the court docket to delay the ban to offer him time to determine a “political decision.” Right now, Trump will not be capable to do something on this case till he takes workplace a day after the legislation goes into impact.

For extra on the case, here is what to know concerning the Supreme Courtroom’s determination.