Can you use VPN to access TikTok? What you need to know amid potential TikTok ban

TikTok faces a potential ban this month, and users are frantically looking for alternatives to retain access to the platform. The quintessential entertainment platform could be taken down from app stores by January 19.

The decision now hinges on the Supreme Court's intervention in a federal law that mandates that TikTok become independent of its China-based parent company. Should this fail to happen, a nationwide ban would be imposed, rendering it illegal to download the app from the app store.

It remains unclear how long you will be able to access the app if it is already downloaded on your phone, though it seems possible that a VPN could work.

"A virtual private network is a privacy tool that hides your IP address by sending your internet traffic through a remote server," CNET's Moe Long has pointed out. "If I'm in New York, US, but tunneling through a London, UK, server with ExpressVPN, Disney Plus thinks I'm across the pond."

Essentially, a VPN makes it seem as though you're accessing the platform from across the world, when you're really in America. Alternatively, you can opt for proxy servers to access the platform. It works by masking your IP address by rerouting your traffic to another server first instead. The difference between the two lies in its security; a VPN is more safe.

Is TikTok really looking at a ban? Platform's attorneys confused as much as we are

President-elect Donald Trump filed a motion with the court to give him some time to work out a “political resolution” to this conundrum when he takes office on January 20. Should his request be granted, the ban could be delayed even further. Reportedly, though, oral arguments over the law were delivered just this Friday, which means that the Supreme Court could issue a decision in the coming days.

CNN reports that most of the justices were keen on upholding the law as they questioned the platform's legal counsel and its users about their claims that the law is in violation of their First Amendment rights.

"We believe the court will find the TikTok ban unconstitutional so the over 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their free speech rights," the company said in a December statement.

Senior Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg penned the following in a December ruling for the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit:

"The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States. Here, the government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary's ability to gather data on people in the United States."

A TikTok attorney, Noel Francisco, also seemed unclear about how the ban would be enforced, given that there has never been a ban on an app of this much relevance.

“On January 19, as I understand it, we shut down,” he said. He went on, adding that “what the act says is that all of the other types of service providers can’t provide service either. So essentially what they’re going to say is that, I think, ‘we’re not going to be providing the services necessary to have you see it.’ So it’s essentially going to stop operating. I think that’s the consequence of this law.”

CNN reports that even if the ban does go into effect, it doesn't mean it would be permanent. This is because TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, can make the decision to sell the app to a non-Chinese-based owner. This would in turn render the app legal in the US again.