You can’t open douyin (the Chinese Tiktok) with a non-Chinese SIM present. So implementing it on the software side would be trivial, if google was to enforce this change software-sided.
The block is trivial to bypass though, all you need to do is use wifi while disabling the SIM slot in your phone settings. My wife is Chinese, and I had to figure that out for her.
If someone is savvy enough to install from outside of the normal install mode especially on iOS, wouldn’t that imply that they are at least aware of a VPN?
There are lots of good free vpns out now, so it’s not unlikely. People that spend hours on it can follow a guide for 10 minutes. It will lower the amount of people on it for sure but anybody who wants to can bypass it easily. It will probably mean more for creators and stuff, and their us bank accounts maybe won’t be able to accept money from tk if they’re sanctioned.
More likely people will just install/update tiktok outside of Google play and apple store.
Rumor has it that tiktok will be unplayable with accounts linked to an American SIM card
That… would be interesting. I wonder how they would implement that, and what else they decide is worth that restriction. Curious to see it play out
Edit: helpful info from Toms Hardware
https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/online-security/what-will-happen-if-tiktok-is-banned
You can’t open douyin (the Chinese Tiktok) with a non-Chinese SIM present. So implementing it on the software side would be trivial, if google was to enforce this change software-sided.
The block is trivial to bypass though, all you need to do is use wifi while disabling the SIM slot in your phone settings. My wife is Chinese, and I had to figure that out for her.
Any China market tablet can install douyin even without a SIM, most even come with it installed by default.
The app will stop working in the US. Doesn’t matter where you get it from.
Isn’t that what a VPN is for?
If someone is savvy enough to install from outside of the normal install mode especially on iOS, wouldn’t that imply that they are at least aware of a VPN?
There are lots of good free vpns out now, so it’s not unlikely. People that spend hours on it can follow a guide for 10 minutes. It will lower the amount of people on it for sure but anybody who wants to can bypass it easily. It will probably mean more for creators and stuff, and their us bank accounts maybe won’t be able to accept money from tk if they’re sanctioned.