The law says it will be “unlawful” for any entity to “distribute, maintain or update” the app including its source code, or by “providing services” that allow the app to continue running as it currently is. This distribution, maintenance or updates, the law says, can be done through mobile app stores accessible in the US or by “providing internet hosting services.”
“The law really deliberately avoided saying that it was illegal to have the app on your phone,” said Milton Mueller, professor and co-founder of the Internet Governance Project at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in opposition to the ban. “Their attempt is to say that no one new can download it from the Apple or Google stores, and no one who has it can update it through those stores,” says Mueller. “There's nothing in the law that says 'TikTok, you have to block American users,' which again is interesting.”
If TikTok is removed from Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store in the US, it will not be possible to immediately install new updates that add new features, fix bugs in the code or destroy security flaws. This means that TikTok will no longer function properly over time. Apple did not respond to WIRED's request for comment, while Google declined to comment on what it will do if the law takes effect.
The law's other focus is on preventing “hosting companies” from providing services to TikTok – and the definition is quite broad. Hosting companies “may include file hosting, domain name server hosting, cloud hosting and virtual private server hosting,” the law says. Since the summer of 2022, when TikTok was under pressure over its Chinese ownership, the company has been hosting US user data within Oracle's cloud services. Oracle also did not respond to WIRED's request for comment.
Still, other systems, such as content delivery networks, advertising networks, payment providers, and more, are used as part of TikTok's infrastructure. The law does not specifically mention these services, but different legal interpretations may raise questions about whether they help “maintain” or “distribute” TikTok's fully functioning service.
Hall says a recent test of the TikTok website showed 185 embedded domains on the page. “They're pulling in code, content from that set of third-party providers and also their own domains,” he says. “The apps will fall into disrepair and rot if both services stop working, things like content distribution networks or services that feel they can't take the risks of the ambiguous nature of the language or the potential enforcement by the new administration.”
There is one internet infrastructure player on whom the ban does not specifically put pressure: internet service providers. Countries such as Russia and China have developed censorship measures that allow them to prevent entire websites from being accessible via web bowsers. Mueller believes this omission by US lawmakers was likely intentional as it avoids setting up a Chinese-style internet firewall. “They knew that a system of ISP-based blocking and filtering would clearly be a form of First Amendment restriction,” he says.
Avoiding a TikTok ban
While TikTok's service in the US will likely deteriorate over time, there remain some possible ways around a ban – both for individuals and potentially for the company itself. How effective these measures are likely to be depends on how motivated people are to continue using TikTok and what the company decides to do.
“TikTok has 170 million users,” said Alan Rozenshtein, an associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota, who supports the law but says it is the “best of a bunch of bad options” regarding TikTok. “This law will not prevent everyone from accessing TikTok. I don't think that was ever the purpose of the law. The law should make it significantly more difficult to access TikTok.”
