[dreamcompiler]

I'm no fan of TikTok, but in general the US president doesn't get to tell US companies what to buy, and he doesn't get to tell US persons what internet sites they can or cannot visit. (Yes, I realize it does happen e.g. for gambling sites, but it's generally a game of whack-a-mole for the government because there is no Great Firewall of the US.) If ByteDance just told Trump to go to hell, what specific legal and technical actions could he take to stop Americans from using TikTok?

I'm worried about precedent here, and whether this is just a pretext for creating a GFoUS.

[frank2]

The US president can probably compel Apple and Google to remove Tiktok from their app stores. Tiktok can appeal that action to the US court system and the US legislature, but those appeals would probably go nowhere.

So a technically inclined Android user or a user of a jailbroken iOS device can probably continue to use Tiktok, with effort, but will have much fewer people to interact with using the service.

[Drew_]

If the president can't compel Apple/Google to install backdoors, he can't compel them to remove TikTok.

[elpool2]

He could have the commerce department put TikTok on the Entity List, which would prohibit all US companies from doing business with them. It would be unprecedented though because putting a company on the Entity List is almost always tied to some actual criminal activity like trade violations or espionage (see HuaWei).

So there is away for him to do it, but TikTok could challenge it legally.

[kanox]

But would Apple and Google actually resist a TikTok ban?

It wouldn't be surprising to see them ban TikTok voluntarily and receive positive press coverage.

[kanox]

Google and Apple could arbitrarily agree to remove the app from their stores.

Even if it was still usable via some kind of side-loading it would completely destroy the userbase.

[jawarner]

Sorry, a GFoUS?

[edgarvaldes]

Great Firewall of US, maybe.