The law says it is “unlawful” for entities to “distribute, maintain or update” the program, including its source code, or “provide services” that allow it to continue in its current state. The law says that distribution, maintenance or updating can be through mobile app stores accessible in the United States or by “providing Internet hosting services.”
“The law really deliberately avoids saying it’s illegal to have an app on your phone,” said Milton Mueller, a professor and co-founder of the Internet Governance Project at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who filed a brief with the Supreme Court. “What they’re trying to say is that no one new can download it from the Apple or Google stores, and someone who has it can’t update it through those stores,” Mueller’s opposition to the ban says. There is nothing in the law that says “TikTok must block US users”, which again is interesting.
If TikTok is removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in the US, it will not be possible to directly install new updates that add new features, fix bugs in the code, or fix security flaws. Over time, this means that TikTok will not work properly. Apple did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment, while Google declined to comment on what it would do if the law went into effect.
Another focus of the law is on preventing companies that “host” TikTok from providing services — and that’s a very broad definition. 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 faced pressure over its Chinese ownership, the company has been hosting US user data on Oracle’s cloud services. Oracle also did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
However, other systems such as content delivery networks, ad networks, payment providers, and more are used as part of TikTok’s infrastructure. The law doesn’t specifically mention these services, but different readings of the law could call into question whether they help to “maintain” or “distribute” TikTok’s fully functional service.
Hall says a recent test of the TikTok website showed 185 embedded domains on the page. “They import code, content from an array of third-party providers and their own domains as well,” he says. “Programs start to rot and rot as services fail, things like content distribution networks or services that feel they can’t take the risk of the ambiguous nature of the language or the potential implementation by input management.”
There is one internet infrastructure player that the ban doesn’t specifically hit: internet service providers. Countries like Russia and China have created censorship measures that allow them to block access to entire websites through web bowers. Mueller believes the exclusion of US lawmakers was likely intentional, as it avoids creating a Chinese-style internet firewall. “They knew that an ISP-based blocking and filtering system would obviously be some kind of First Amendment restriction,” he says.
Avoid getting banned from TikTok
While TikTok’s service in the U.S. is likely to slow down over time, there are potential ways around any bans — both for individuals and potentially the company itself. How effective these measures will be depends on how motivated people are to continue using TikTok and what the company decides to do.
“Tik Tok has 170 million users,” said Alan Rosenstein, an associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota, who supports the law. This rule will not prevent any of them from accessing TikTok. I don’t think that was ever the intent of the law. The rule is to make TikTok significantly more difficult to access.
