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?

  • lurch (he/him)@sh.itjust.works
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    9 hours ago

    We don’t have the ability to nationally block the domains and IPs

    I disagree. It may be able to circumvent it, but US ISPs could configure their DNS servers to not resolve the domains and their routers to drop packages from and to these IPs. It will affect everyone who uses their ISPs default config for DNS and not uses VPN/Tor, which is a lot of people.

    The question is: Is there a legal procedure to do that? For malware they are sometimes doing things like that (seizing botnet control domains etc), but tiktok isn’t officially malware, AFAIK.

    • Steve@communick.news
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      7 hours ago

      This isn’t North Korea.
      Even China and Russia can’t fully block things.
      Our networks aren’t nearly as controlled as theirs.