This feels like a “draw the rest of the owl” argument.
This is the hard part. The US doesn’t have the great firewall of China. As far as I know, the only way I’ve ever seen the US government block a site is by actually seizing the domain.
Is that what they do here? I don’t see them reasonable enforcing this at all DNS level. People will just switch to an alternative DNS provider.
Getting it off of the iOS app store basically eliminates it as an option for that demographic.
How is that not an outright ban?
Last step: the whole world will start to use the same framework and it is the death of Silicon Valley. That would be great for the world.
I say to that- "you don't really need to truly ban anything, you just have to make it hella inconvenient".
Just eliminate the app from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Almost all the work is done. Just like that. You do some more, and you effectively shrink the user base by 99%+. That's all you need.
I think that's good enough.
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.