On a technical level, how is TikTok being blocked/banned in the US?

Can I still sideload the app to my phone? Is it only being banned from the two big app stores? Is there a penalty for being found in possession of the software on US soil?

  • elgordino@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    44
    ·
    19 hours ago

    Yeah. ByteDance, the owners, are choosing to block US users to kick up the maximum fuss possible. From my understanding they didn’t need to, they just risked withering away because there would be no new users.

      • Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        1 hour ago

        They know that Trump will make a fuss about it next week and release the ban, blaming the Dems, so that people forget the China tariffs he has been talking all campaign.

        Trump is so predictable that these totalitarian governments play him like a fiddle.

    • FuryMaker@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      13 hours ago

      Yeah, they won’t geofence. Still money to be made from existing US users. And no one puts principles above profits.