The law says it will be “illegal” for an entity to “distribute, maintain or update” the application including its source code, or by “providing a service” that allows it to run as it is. This distribution, maintenance, or update may be, by law, through a mobile application store accessible in the US or by “providing internet hosting services.” app on your phone,” said Milton Mueller, professor and cofounder of the Internet Governance Project at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in opposition to the ban. “The effort is that no new person can download from the Apple store or Google, and none of the owners can update through the store,” Mueller said. “There’s nothing in the law that says ‘TikTok you have to block US users,’ which is interesting again. will add new features, fix bugs in the code, or remove security flaws. Over time, that means TikTok will stop working properly. Apple did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment, while Google declined to comment on what it would do if the law took effect. broad. 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 Chinese ownership, the company has been hosting US user data on Oracle’s cloud service. Oracle also did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment. However, other systems such as content delivery networks, advertising networks, payment providers, etc. are used as part of TikTok’s infrastructure. The law does not mention the service specifically, but a different reading of the law can make them question whether it helps to “maintain” or “distribute” a fully functional TikTok service. “They pull code, content from third-party providers and their own domains,” he said. “Applications will begin to rot and decay because either service stops, like content distribution networks or services that feel they can’t take the risk of ambiguous language or potential enforcement from a future administration.” one internet infrastructure player that the ban does not specifically force: internet service providers. Countries such as Russia and China have developed censorship measures that allow them to block entire websites from being accessible through web browsers. Mueller believes the absence of US lawmakers is deliberate, as it avoids setting up Chinese-style internet firewalls. “They know that ISP-based blocking and filtering systems will be a form of First Amendment restriction,” he said. – both for individuals and potentially also the company itself. How effective these measures are depends on what motivates people to continue using TikTok and what the company decides to do. “TikTok has 170 million users,” said Alan Rozenshtein, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, who supported the law but said it was “the best of many bad choices” related to TikTok. “This law will not prevent everyone from accessing TikTok. I don’t think that was ever the purpose of the law. The law makes it more difficult to access TikTok.
How the US TikTok Ban Really Works
