# Ban TikTok? How would it be done? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 26, 2024, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802 "2024-04-26T20:14:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/21 "2024-04-29T14:51:43Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > The point is that it is certainly not beyond the technological capabilities of the US to implement a comprehensive ban on Tik Tok very swiftly once the decision is made to do so. Well of course the United States is technologically capable of implementing a censorship framework on the Internet. If Communist China can, we certainly would be able to. But that is exactly the point: we can’t, not because of a shortfall of technical knowlege, but because we’re the United States of America. We don’t do that kind of shit. And when we do, we eventually come to our senses. And we certainly don’t shit on the Bill of Rights because Millennials like a Chinese media company “too much”. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/22 "2024-04-29T15:00:46Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > it’s illustrative to look at China and we’re back to implementing a Great Firewall of China, US Version. An authoritarian state could definitely do this. (And I’m going to use the circular definition that any state that does do it is authoritarian.) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/23 "2024-04-29T15:11:06Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > There is very little that can be done in an app that can’t be done on a mobile website. Videos, comments, ads, swiping, all of that stuff can be done in ways that need no support from app stores. ⁢ There is one very important thing they can’t do as well as a website: collect data. The browser won’t give them the permissions or access that a proper app would. That’s why mobile websites push you to use their apps. Also, it’s easier to block ads in a browser. So basically everything they monetize is harder to use in a browser. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/24 "2024-04-29T15:28:37Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > But that is exactly the point: we can’t, not because of a shortfall of technical knowlege, but because we’re the United States of America. We don’t do that kind of shit. The OP was asking about the technological possibility (which you disputed in an earlier post), not the political wisdom or constitutionality of a ban. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/25 "2024-04-29T15:43:51Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > The OP was asking about the technological possibility (which you disputed in an earlier post), not the political wisdom or constitutionality of a ban. ⁢ That is not how I read the OP. I read it as them asking how the current law will\* be implemented. I do not think they are planning to use the Great Firewall method. \*If Bytedance were to avoid selling TikTok. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/26 "2024-04-29T15:49:11Z")
Well, the OP’s hypothetical is misplaced, since no network provider is going to implement any such system without being compelled to, and such compulsion is patently illegal. The technology boils down to this: - Remove apps from all application stores - Find all domain names used for the service and redirect them to a blackhole address, like the FBI does for seized websites - Reverse engineer all IP addresses used for the service and firewall them at every network provider to drop all traffic to or from them - Repeat ad infinitum since these are all moving targets. That’s in appropriate order of difficulty, which corresponds roughly to how concentrated the function is. There are only a couple of app stores, but dozens of domain name service providers and hundreds of network operators. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/27 "2024-04-29T15:58:53Z")
It’s working well in financial services: People on sanctions lists find it difficult to get financial services - not because there’s some centralised enforcement mechanism, but because a public list of sanctioned companies and individuals exists, together with the threat to fine the heck out of a bank or other financial entity that refuses to comply. The implementation works at the bank level, not the level of some central government agency. In effect, legislators are outsourcing the implementation of the sanctions to private companies. They complain, of course, but they comply. Circumvention is not impossible, but sufficiently difficult to make the sanctions sufficiently effective for their purpose. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/28 "2024-04-29T16:31:17Z")
Banking may be literally the single most regulated international industry in the world. The Internet is virtually completely unregulated. You handwave the difference away. But if you could wave a magic wand and instantaneously create the regulatory agencies, the sizable volume of banking legislation, huge amounts of rulemaking, and whole industries involved with regulatory compliance and enforcement… then yes, it’s easy. Back to the OP’s point… it’s not rocket surgery. At the individual network level, administrators do this kind of thing all the time, which is why an employee often can’t get away with surfing porn on a company computer or network. It’s a similar kind of problem. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2024, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/29 "2024-05-11T01:33:49Z")
Just removing it from the default app stores would be sufficient to kill it off. The purpose of tiktok is to collect views and likes. Once sufficient people have stopped using it for various reasons (app updates, new phones), the content providers will stop posting because of insufficient attention and the death spiral will only steepen. Sure there will be a pool of rebel users that will take steps to keep using the app, but entropy always wins in the end. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2024, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/30 "2024-05-11T04:06:52Z")
Is that true if the US is the only country (or one of only a few) to ban it? Internationally it still might be used heavily, and there are plenty of Americans who would want to check out what they’re doing. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2024, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/31 "2024-05-11T05:22:51Z")
I wonder how much ByteDance makes from advertising by US based companies. I’ve never used TikToc, so have no idea how the monetisation works. But legislating to stop advertising on the platform would hurt. So not just advertising revenue dropping as US users fall away, but maybe a generally significant source of global advertising. A key set of users outside of China are ex-pat Chinese, who still want a tie back to their motherland. Even those who have no intention of returning to live. They are one group that is likely to be quite interested in a VPN or other workaround. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2024, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/32 "2024-05-11T15:25:40Z")
That sounded more US-centric than intended. It would have been more accurate to say that removing it from the US stores would effectively kill it in the US. Tiktok has millions of users outside the US even though the US has more than any other individual country, it still has less that 20% of the global user base. [Oberlo Statistics](https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/tiktok-users-by-country) ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2024, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/33 "2024-05-13T19:00:31Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Tiktok has millions of users outside the US even though the US has more than any other individual country, it still has less that 20% of the global user base. Yes, but if the top content creators are overrepresented in the US (and your link implies that many of the top followed posters are in the US, but it doesn’t give details) that could still cause big problems for TikTok. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2024, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/34 "2024-05-14T07:04:53Z")
Presumably all that existing content doesn’t vanish. TikTok can still store/host those US-creator-made videos, and keep serving them up essentially forever. A tweak to the algorithm to reprioritize things it didn’t previously show for whatever reason, and it will feel like new content to the idle scroller. It’s notable that TikTok already makes it nearly impossible for the viewer to determine when a video was posted, so as long as there isn’t anything specific to date the content (“so sad to hear Betty White died last night!”) the user will be none the wiser. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/35 "2025-01-17T18:01:04Z")
The Supreme Court has upheld the law requiring TikTok to be sold. National security is sufficient to overcome 1st Amendment concerns. > **[U.S. Supreme Court upholds law banning TikTok](https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/article/us-supreme-court-upholds-law-banning-tiktok/)** > > The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against TikTok on Friday in its challenge to a federal law that would have required the popular short-video app to be sold by its Chinese parent company ByteDance or banned in the United States on Jan. 19. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/36 "2025-01-17T18:03:33Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > The Supreme Court has upheld the law requiring TikTok to be sold. Very, very good news - except that Biden announced that he will not be enforcing this law, and whether Trump does anything is a crapshoot. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/37 "2025-01-18T07:30:12Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Very, very good news - except that Biden announced that he will not be enforcing this law, and whether Trump does anything is a crapshoot. A bit more nuanced - according to the news, the law gives the president an option to suspend the law for 90 days if a valid offer to buy from an (Americn? Non-Chinese?) buyer is under negotiation. The law takes effect the day before inauguration. Biden has said that since the law goes into effect on Sunday, he will let Trump decide on Monday whether to make that certification, which requires a purchase bid by then. So he will not prosecute failure to implement the ban before Monday. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/38 "2025-01-18T07:49:40Z")
I would point out that the US Government is not trying to ban Tik Tok. The ban is on who controls it which is currently the Chinese military. If they choose to walk away from a multi-billion dollar company then that is their call. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/39 "2025-01-18T14:58:25Z")
Amused that people are running in protest to RedNote, which is run by the Chinese military. And how many politicians who voted in favor of the ban own Meta stock? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802/40 "2025-01-18T15:08:51Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Amused that people are running in protest to RedNote, which is run by the Chinese military. Even more amusingly, RedNote’s Chinese name translates to “Little Red Book”. You could probably power the Eastern Seaboard with the spinning bodies of Red Scare politicians. For a while, American and Chinese users of “Little Red Book” could interact with each other, and that was a bit… messy… First, a bunch of American posters got banned for commenting on topics the CCCP finds sensitive. TikTok, to my understanding, wasn’t going to ban you for mentioning, say, Tiananmen Square; but RedNote would. And second, there was apparently a bit of… Culture shock? When it came to black creators, and attitudes towards black people. And when I say “culture shock” I mean comment sections full of slurs and monkey emojis. Yikes… Apparently these problems are going to be solved soon - by completely walling off Chinese users from foreigners. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-tiktok-how-would-it-be-done/1000802.md?page=3)