| Not sure what the article says (doesn't open for me at the moment) but to answer the question: Access to Play Store apps can be restricted to certain countries. Such apps do not appear in search results. So it's possible for Tik Tok to disappear for anyone looking to install it in the US, or with a US-based Google account. However, as long as a device allows sideloading (installing apps from other, "unknown" sources), and most of them do, it's debatable whether it could be banned from people's devices. Google has some mechanisms to counter malware (Play Protect) but these are supposed to be used against "harmful" apps. It's debatable whether they would want to be involved in enforcing these restrictions this way. It might be difficult for most users to follow the instructions to sideload an app, however there was the precedent with Fortnite, where users were asked to download it directly from fortnite.com/android (or use a QR code), and it seems to have worked. As far as I recall the Fortnite app was also preloaded on some phones. The real difficulty for ByteDance might be something else altogether: namely, if the US prohibits doing business with the company, and the US users could no longer be monetized. Such a restriction would be very difficult to work around. |