How VPNs Can Let Americans Keep Using TikTok

15
Jan 25
By | Other

If TikTok does indeed go dark on Sunday for Americans, there may be a tool for them to continue accessing the popular social app: VPN.Â

The Chinese-owned app will be removed from mobile and web app stores for US users on Sunday as a result of a law signed by President Joe Biden in April 2024 that requires the app to be sold to a qualified buyer before the deadline. Â

Barring a last-minute sale or stay by the Supreme Court, the app will almost certainly disappear from app stores for iPhones and Android phones. It won’t be removed from people’s phones, but the app may stop working.Â

TikTok plans to shut down its service for Americans on Sunday, meaning even those who already have the app downloaded won’t be able to continue using it, according to reports this week from Reuters and The Information. Apple AND Google did not comment on their plans to remove apps from their app stores on Sunday.

“Essentially, an app or a website can control where users come from,” said Justas Palekas, a product manager at IProyal.com, a proxy service. “Based on that, they can then set restrictions based on their location.”

Masking your physical Internet access point

This may stop most users, but for particularly inclined Americans, using VPNs may allow them to continue using the app.Â

VPNs and a related business-to-business technology called proxies work by tunneling a user’s Internet traffic through a server in another location, making it appear as if they are accessing the Internet from a location other than where they are physically.Â

This works because every time a computer connects to the Internet, it is identified through an IP number, which is a 12-digit number that is different for every single computer. The first six digits of the number identify the network, which also includes information about the physical region from which the request originated.

In China, people have been using VPNs for years to bypass the country’s firewall, which blocks US websites like Google and Facebook. VPNs saw huge increases in traffic when India banned TikTok in 2020, and people often use VPNs to watch sporting events from countries where official streams are not available.Â

As of 2022, the VPN market was worth nearly $38 billion, according to the VPN Trust Initiative, a lobbying group.

“We consistently see significant increases in demand for VPNs when access to online platforms is restricted, and this situation is no different,” said Lauren Hendry Parsons, privacy attorney at ExpressVPN, a $5-a-month VPN provider. was used.

“We’re not here to endorse TikTok, but the impending US ban highlights why VPNs matter – millions of people rely on them for secure, private and unrestricted internet access,” ProtonVPN posted on social media in beginning of this week. ProtonVPN offers its service for $10 per month.Â

The price of VPNs

Both ExpressVPN and ProtonVPN allow users to set their own internet access location.Â

Most VPN services charge a monthly fee to pay for their servers and traffic, but some use a business model where they collect user data or traffic trends, such as when Meta offered a free VPN so it could observed which competitors’ applications were growing fast.

A major trade-off for those using VPNs is speed due to requests having to go through an intermediary computer to mask users’ physical location.Â

And although VPNs have worked in the past when governments have banned apps, that doesn’t guarantee that VPNs will work if TikTok goes dark. It won’t be clear whether ExpressVPN will be able to access TikTok until the ban happens, Parsons told CNBC in an email. It’s also possible that TikTok may be able to identify Americans trying to use VPNs to access the app.

(L-R) Sarah Baus of Charleston, SC, holds a sign that reads “Keep TikTok” as she and fellow content creators Sallye Miley of Jackson, Mississippi, and Callie Goodwin of Columbia, SC, stand outside the US Supreme Court building as a court. hears oral arguments on whether to overturn or delay a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the US on January 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.Â

Andrew Harnick | Getty Images

VPNs and proxies to bypass regional restrictions have been part of the Internet landscape for decades, but their use is increasing as governments seek to block certain services or applications.

Applications are removed at the request of the government at all times. Nearly 1,500 apps were removed in regions due to government removal requests in 2023, according to Apple, with over 1,000 of them in China. Most of these are small apps that violate laws such as those against gambling, or China’s video game regulations, but increasingly, countries are banning the apps for reasons of national security or economic development.

Now, the US is poised to ban one of the country’s most popular apps — with 115 million users, it was the second most downloaded app of 2024 on iOS and Android, according to an estimate provided to CNBC by Sensor Tower. , a market intelligence firm.

“As we witness increasing efforts to fragment and censor the Internet, the role of VPNs in preserving Internet freedom is becoming increasingly critical,” Parsons said.

WATCH: Alternative Chinese growth of TikTok

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