TikTok ban latest: Trump weighs executive order to ‘save TikTok’ as Supreme Court decision looms

The most commonly cited workaround to the eventual ban is using VPN, or Virtual private network, which allows users to mask their location.

People may still be able to access their TikTok accounts by using a vpn and with other small changes to their phone’s settings, according to ExpressVPN’s director of communications Lauren Hendry Parsons.

“The looming US ban highlights why VPNs matter – millions rely on them for secure, private, and unrestricted access to the internet,” Switzerland-based ProtonVPN said in a post on X, adding however that it does not endorse TikTok.

Users may also be able to continue to update the app via third-party app stores online but this may make them more vulnerable to malware, telecommunications expert Gus Hurwitz from University of Pennsylvania told the Associated Press.

TikTok attorney Noel Francisco told the US Supreme Court that the app will likely “shut down” and “go dark” on Sunday.

A similar thing happened in India in 2020 when TikTok just shut down one evening after a ban took effect with its 200 million users and brands suddenly unable to access the platform one evening.

Another likely option is for TikTok content to be viewable for users without them being able to post.

In this scenario, those with the app on their devices will not receive updates, and the platform could become unavailable for new downloads in the US.

Members of the House Energy and Commerce committee signaled their hostility towards TikTok and other Chinese companies on Thursday as the panel’s GOP majority accused the Los Angeles- and Singapore-based company of being un-American.

The attack was led by the committee’s Republican majority, empowered by their November takeover of the lower chamber and eager to capitalise on what little political momentum they have (thanks to a narrow defeat of the Democrats) with a new harder-than-ever line against China and its ruling Communist Party.

With many TikTok users in the US migrating to the Chinese social media platform RedNote, cybersecurity expert Adrianus Warmenhoven at NordVPN warned that this shift could come with “serious cybersecurity and privacy risks”.

“Like TikTok, RedNote is subject to Chinese data laws, which may grant government authorities access to user data without the privacy protections expected in the US,” Mr Warmenhoven said.

He said RedNote may also collect users’ personal data, including location and browsing activity and share this data with third-party service providers or government authorities.

“A major red flag is the app’s lack of transparency — its terms and conditions are mainly in Mandarin, leaving non-Chinese-speaking users unclear about what data is collected and how it’s used,” the cybersecurity expert said.

The Supreme Court has until Sunday to rule in the TikTok ban case before the law takes effect and millions of U.S. users lose access to the popular social media platform but they can issue a decision at any given time.

The court signaled they plan to intervene in the case before the deadline – they’ve fast-tracked oral arguments and cited the deadline as a reason for this.

The court had allocated Wednesday morning to release opinions but this did not include TikTok. Because the case arrived on the court’s “emergency docket” – or cases that need to be decided quickly – the court can rule at any time, not just on allocated opinion days.

President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly considering issuing an executive order that would pause enforcement of the TikTok sale for 60 to 90 days when he returns to office, according to a recent Washington Post report.

Trump, who once advocated for the ban of TikTok, has promised to “save” it from being taken off U.S. app and web servers which would essentially render it unusable.

Assuming the Supreme Court rules that the ban is constitutional, Trump could take office the day after the ban is enacted and issue the executive order reversing it. Two people familiar with the deliberations told The Post.

However, it is unclear if the executive order could bypass the Congress-approved legislation. Most likely, he would face legal challenges.

TikTok would “go dark” on Sunday if the Supreme Court does not intervene, the platform said, according to reports.

Several other regions and countries have enacted partial bans on government or military devices, including the UK, EU, Canada and Australia.

It comes four years after India issued a total ban on the China-owned app, with Iran, Senegal, Nepal, Afghanistan and Somalia also preventing their citizens from using the app. The app is also unavailable in China, meaning more than 3 billion people around the world are unable to access TikTok.

The government argues that TikTok poses a threat to U.S. national security due to its proximity to the Chinese government – which is considered a foreign adversary.

TikTok itself is a company based in the U.S. but its parent company, ByteDance, is based in Beijing. Under Chinese law, any Chinese company must establish an in-house Communist Party committee composed of party members.

That, is where the link between TikTok and the Chinese government lies.

In theory, if the Chinese government asked ByteDance to hand over data acquired by TikTok, the company would have to comply.

A Chinese short-form video app called Xiaohongshu is now the top free app in the Apple App Store, as social media users look to get out ahead of a potential US TikTok ban set to take effect on Sunday.

The app, known as RedNote in English, functions like a cross between Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest, and boasts over 300 million monthly active users, considerably below the user base of TikTok.

Recent evaluations of TikTok, the popular social media app owned by Chinese-based ByteDance, say it could be worth billions– a hefty price for any U.S. investor or company looking to purchase the platform.

The platform must sell to a U.S.-based company by Sunday or risk going dark.

Though ByteDance says no sale is imminent, several potential buyers’ names have floated around, including Elon Musk, Mr. Beast, Kevin O’Leary and others.

One estimation from the Center for Financial Research and Analysis said TikTok could be worth anywhere from $40 to $50 billion, according to CNBC. Another evaluation, from CB Insights, said ByteDance could be worth $222 billion on its own though it’s unclear how much TikTok would be worth in that estimation.