“Even VPNs don’t lead to circumvention” in India, Gosain told WIRED.
In the early hours of the US ban, it was unclear to what extent it would be possible to circumvent the restrictions on US accounts. It appears TikTok took a more extreme approach, making all US versions of the app dark, hiding versions of the TikTok app software that had been designed to be downloaded and used by US users. It also appeared that US-linked accounts were blocked regardless of the SIM card’s IP address or country information.
Using a VPN alone certainly wasn’t enough to get around the ban and get back on TikTok. But apparently using a non-US TikTok account after removing a SIM card (or on a device without a US SIM card/US phone number) worked when combined with a VPN. Similarly, using a VPN with a desktop browser or the Tor browser was enough to load a non-US TikTok account in the United States early Sunday morning, although the desktop version of TikTok was still much more limited than its mobile application.
The impact of the ban was immediate, with internet traffic data provided by monitoring company Kentik. showing an instantaneous and dramatic drop in connection with TikTok. On other social media platforms, people are complaining about TikTok not working on their US-linked devices or accounts, even if they are abroad.
TikTok’s privacy policies, not unlike those of other social media apps, outline a range of information it collects, which could be used to identify people’s homes. This includes everything from address information provided by users to device system settings, SIM card regions, and other network information. (TikTok Privacy Policy now includes a note that service for US users may not be available due to law, calling this a “disruption.”)
In a statement posted online, Apple says If US users delete TikTok or switch to a new phone, TikTok and other ByteDance apps cannot be reinstalled. He also said the ban on software distribution would impact people visiting the United States. “Users from outside the United States whose Apple account is set to a country or region other than the United States cannot download, update, or make in-app purchases and new subscriptions,” explains Apple.
“TikTok inspects the source IP address of network packets. If the source IP address belongs to India, it drops the packets,” says Gosain about restrictions in India. “In addition, the TikTok app retrieves the country information embedded in the SIM card, and if the country code is “IN”, it filters the network connection. When we remove the SIM card, the TikTok app fails to identify Indian users from the SIM card, and when we use VPNs, the IP address changes and it no longer belongs to the Indian IP range. So, TikTok once again fails to identify that the user is accessing from India. This is how we bypass filtering.
Virtual private networks, or VPNswork by routing your Internet traffic through servers physically maintained in locations around the world, so you can select an IP address tied to a different location than where you are physically located. For example, American TikTok users can use VPNs to appear as if they are accessing the internet from outside the United States. VPNs also prevent your Internet Service Provider (ISP) from seeing your browsing data, adding an additional potential layer of privacy. When you use a VPN, your ISP will just see the connections to the VPN instead of having access to a detailed list of all the websites you visit.