What would a TikTok ban look like?

There is a huge misconception regarding the ban.

To effectively ban something, you don't really need to make the ban airtight.

You just need to make using tiktok really inconvenient.

You ensure that tiktok complies to the ban, by threatning sanctions to executives, or by seizing their US properties and assets. You do this to make sure the tiktok app or website doesn't respond to any IP from the US.

Then, you also make all your ISPs, phone carriers to respect the ban.

Tiktok now isn't available in Play Store, App Store, etc. as Apple and Google will comply very easily.

Now, it becomes really really inconvenient for the common person to use tiktok. It can still be done through VPN+website. But it looks very poor, and it is slow, and you need to pay a subscription money.

Other options like YT shorts, Instagram are sitting there and very convenient.

As the populace shift there, creators shift there, too.

That is how tiktok crumbles.

There won't be a cat and mouse game like piracy sites, because piracy sites provide a kind of value that is simply absent in tiktok.

People will just move on.

0.01%, if that, of the total number of current users in the US will keep using tiktok. Let them.

You don't really need to ensure an airtight ban. That is futile and unnecessary.

Cut off the money. Make it illegal for American residents and businesses to do business (exchange money) with the company. Individuals would still be able to post, view it, etc. But with no advertising, no sponsorships, the business model disappears. There would likely be no need to go further.

If that bill passes the US Senate, the corporate entity for tiktok has 1 calendar year to dissolve the current ownership and establish US company ownership.

I don't think there is anything technical to discuss, its a business/legal issue. If its banned after the year passes and nothing is changed, this might amount to the existing service/site being required to put a popup on its page indicating that a user is coming from US and access is not allowed (similar to some states and a hub of videos). There really isn't any need for anything more technical than that. Yes, users will go around this but I believe the vast majority of users will not bother and will go somewhere else for their digital dopamine fix.

So technically a popup. That is the simplest technical solution that is enforceable by courts staffed with 60-70 year old judges.

>On the other hand, maybe this will inspire the next generation to work on more decentralized platforms.

The problem so far with the decentralized platforms is the confusing onboarding experience for new users. Sure, it’s like email, but people have gotten used to going to one app or one website to sign up in one place. Understanding protocols over platforms, and then running into issues where not all instances are talking to all other instances, leaves users confused and frustrated (if they even make it past the onboarding).

These platforms need to be good enough to stand on their own merits, and not just be for those who are frustrated enough to use the decentralized platform on principle alone.

There's an implicit assumption here that the ban enforcement will involve/require adversarial technical approaches.

But I think it'll be similar to India's 4-year-old ban on TikTok where the local corporate entity itself has cooperated with the ban to avoid legal repercussions. TikTok has been detecting IP addresses from India and showing a legal notice that it's banned in the country due to a government/court order.

I expect fb will be the primary beneficiary (stock tip? idk); haven't they already replicated its core functionality? That some technical users can circumvent the ban is irrelevant for something with value derived from network effects.

Wouldn't the US government banning tiktok be unconstitutional?[1] I'm genuinely asking.

What kind of forum would tiktok be categorized as?[2] Nonpublic forum? In which case, it's legal for the government to ban it?

"in a nonpublic forum, the Government may restrict contents of a speech, as long as the restriction is reasonable and the restriction does not discriminate based on speakers’ viewpoints."

[1]https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment [2]https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/forums

Delete the app from app stores and then on the next OS update make the app backwards incompatible so people can’t use the app anymore. It’s over at that point.

What's the likelihood do you think this ban will be legalized and even enforced?

Block on US credit card purchases for advertising.

Just look at what happened to the pirate bay for a prior. The Internet is likely to route around it, or a thousand clones will spawn.

TikTok, as well as many other Social Platforms became heavily extortionist upon content creators in the last 3 years... Because they created advertising capability, which is essential to build an audience within their closed walls, they no longer had any incentive to permit organic growth, as ad revenue earns them Billions of dollars. There is no way to verify the return on investment for buying ads on these platforms, the majority of ad views could well be bot and inauthentic accounts, so the value of spending heavily on ads is also a farce.

These apps have turned into casinos, where only the house really wins, and creators and businesses only find out after they've spent far too much on closed-platform advertising with shrinking sales, as less viable customers log in because they find a lack of opportunity and entertainment due to all the ads now displayed. Even the influence r economy is drying up, as viewers consider influencers inauthentic when they shill consumer products.

TikTok has turned into television, where there are little choices, little relevance to the vast audience of viewers, and tons of commercials. TikTok has been dying for a while now, just like FaceBook, and Twitter. People can do without it, though it may be painful at first, most of the earnings on TikTok were for the company on ad revenue, not for businesses and creators, and that is evidenced by declining markets and higher unemployment filings over time. A lot of the creators touting massive earnings is the result of the "fake it till you make it" ethos pushed by Social Media since it's inception.

Many of the people evangelizing platforms now are paid actors and sponsored under the table.... There is little means to detect when it's happening because the algorithms appear to be mysterious, but the primary "algorithm" running on most of these platforms now is based on who pays the most money to be seen.

It will be interesting to see what comes next, but users are beyond worn out on these casino ad-based social media business models, as evidenced on Meta Threads (a non-ad-based) platform, and on black-hat hacker forums, many complain about how platforms no longer work properly, and how they no longer even log in to them. The social media platforms may say otherwise, but we are experiencing a conscious shift away from mega-platforms back to smaller message boards and individual websites, which may be a good thing, let's hope the siege on consciousness of social media is in it's last laps, purely to end repetitive ads, gimmicky music clips, success tips, lack of pay for work, and influencer wealth lies... And to also cull all the political, cultural, and medical disinformation at least.