HACKER Q&A
📣 ThinkBeat

Consequences if the US bans TikTok


What are the likely consequences both short term and long term, if the United States decides to block one of the most popular applications on the internet.

With an alleged 150 million users in the US, there will probably be protests against such a decision.

Of more importance how will it impact competition and applications if the US sets a precedence to ban apps the state does not want their citizens to see.

  👤 swatcoder Accepted Answer ✓
Rhetorical "Ask HN"'s are kind of obnoxious but I'll assume you're genuinely curious about perspectives and are asking in good faith.

Protests over TikTok will blow over. It takes a lot more than a protest for societies to blink, and we've seen many many much more serious protests testify to that. People will get upset when something in their daily routine gets taken away and then almost all of them they'll get over it because it's not really consequential to most people.

> how will it impact competition and applications if the US sets a precedence to ban [select foreign] apps.

As for competion -- well, I'd it to embolden local companies to compete more vigorously in other domains where Chinese apps might be targetted for a ban, and encourage lobbyists to make that happen.

That's not a win for everybody, but it's also not a loss for everybody.

👤 whatamidoingyo
It gives the government more power, essentially. If tiktok is banned, it opens the doors to ban other apps and imports.

Although I could care less if it's banned or not, I think the world would be a better place without it. Likewise for Instagram, et al.

👤 smt88
This is an irrelevant question because the US has decided to just force it to become a US company instead of banning it.
👤 tjpnz
Some whiney speech from Beijing about how it hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.
👤 throwaway2990
There’s no consequences. It’s only positives.