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If TikTok is really dark on Sunday for Americans, there may be a tool for them to continue accessing the popular social app: VPN.
The Chinese-owned app is scheduled to be removed from mobile app stores and the web for US users on Sunday due to a law signed by President Joe Biden in April 2024 that requires the app be sold to a qualified buyer prior to expiration.
Barring a last-minute sale or a takedown by the Supreme Court, the app will almost certainly disappear from the app stores for iPhones and Android phones. It won’t be removed from people’s phones, but the app might stop working.
TikTok plans to shut down its service for Americans on Sunday, meaning that even those who have already downloaded the app will not be able to continue using it, according to reports this week. from Reuters and The information. Apple and Google have not commented on their plans to remove the apps from their app stores on Sunday.
“Basically, an app or a website can check where users are coming from,” said Justas Palekas, product manager at IProyal.com, a proxy service. “Based on that, then they can impose restrictions based on their situation.”
Masking your physical access point to the Internet
That may prevent most users, but for particularly driven Americans, using a VPN could allow them to continue using the app.
VPNs and a business-to-business technology called proxies work by tunneling a user’s internet traffic through a server in another country, making it appear that they are accessing the internet from a different location than where they are they find physically.
This works because every time a computer connects to the internet, it is identified by an IP number, which is a 12-digit number that is different for each computer. The first six digits of the number identify the network, which also includes information about the physical region from which the request is made.
In China, people have been using VPNs for years to bypass the country’s firewall, which blocks American websites like Google and Facebook. VPNs saw huge spikes in traffic when India banned TikTok in 2020, and people often use VPNs to watch sports events from countries where official broadcasts are not available.
By 2022, the VPN market will be worth nearly $38 billion, according to the VPN Trust Initiative, a lobbying group.
“We constantly see significant spikes in VPN demand when access to online platforms is restricted, and this situation is no different,” said Lauren Hendry Parsons, privacy advocate at ExpressVPN, a VPN provider that costs $5 per month to use.
“We’re not here to endorse TikTok, but the impending US ban highlights why VPNs matter – millions rely on them for secure, private and unrestricted internet access,” ProtonVPN posted on e social media earlier this week. ProtonVPN offers its service for $10 per month.
The price of VPN
ExpressVPN and ProtonVPN allow users to set their Internet access location.
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, like when Meta. offers a free VPN so he could keep an eye on which competitor’s applications are growing rapidly.
A key drawback for those who use VPN is the speed due to the requests that have to go through an intermediary computer to mask the physical location of the user.
And even if 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 could access TikTok until after the ban is done, Parsons told CNBC in an email. It is also possible that TikTok may be able to determine Americans who try to use VPN 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 Building of the Supreme Court of the United States as a court. hear oral arguments to overturn or delay a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the United States on January 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images
VPNs and proxies to circumvent regional restrictions have been part of the Internet landscape for decades, but their use is on the rise as governments seek to ban certain services or apps.
Apps are removed by government request all the time. Almost 1500 apps have been removed in regions due to government removal requests in 2023, according to Apple, with more than 1,000 in China. Most of them are marginal apps that break laws such as those against gambling, or Chinese video game regulations, but increasingly, countries are banning apps for reasons of national security or economic development.
Now, the United States is ready to ban one of the most popular apps in the country – 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 company.
“As we witness increasing attempts to fragment and censor the internet, the role of VPNs in defending internet freedom becomes increasingly critical,” said Parsons.
