No, TikTok will not suddenly disappear from your phone. Nor will you go to jail if you continue using it after it is banned.
After years of security concerns, a measure to force a sale of the app has won congressional approval and is on its way to President Joe Biden for his signature. The measure gives Beijing-based parent company ByteDance nine months to sell the company to American owners, with a possible additional three months if a sale is in progress.
If it doesn’t, TikTok will be banned in the U.S.
The TikTok legislation was included as part of a larger $95 billion package that provides foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel and was passed 79-18. It now goes to Biden, who said in a statement immediately after passage that he will sign it Wednesday.
The original proposal gave ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, just six months to sell its U.S. subsidiary. However, after negotiations, this period was extended to nine months, with an additional three months to complete the sale if it’s already in progress. This means that it would take at least a year before a ban on TikTok goes into effect, and with likely court challenges, the process could stretch even longer, possibly years.
Even if a ban does take effect, TikTok, may not completely disappear from users’ phones. After all, it claims to have 170 million users in the U.S.
Rather, it would be removed from Apple and Google’s app stores, preventing users from downloading it. Additionally, TikTok would be unable to send updates, security patches, and bug fixes, which could eventually make the app unusable and a security risk.
Teenagers are known for finding ways to bypass parental controls. They might try similar workarounds for TikTok. For example, they could attempt to use a VPN to mask their location, use alternative app stores, or even install a foreign SIM card into their phone. However, they would need some technical knowledge… and they may not even succeed.
Alternatively, TikTok users may simply move to other platforms, like Instagram’s Reels or YouTube’s Shorts, which often feature content taken directly from TikTok. Popular creators on TikTok tend to maintain accounts on other platforms already.
The Horn editorial team