TikTok service has been restored after a brief outage, but it faces the possibility of going offline again in a couple of months. If that happens, a virtual private network likely won’t be a single-handed solution for accessing the app.
In a Jan. 17 ruling, the US Supreme Court upheld legislation mandating that TikTok be sold or banned. The massively popular social media site was briefly blocked in the US on Sunday, Jan. 19, before having access restored. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday, Jan. 20, postponing the federal TikTok ban by 75 days. But with threats of losing access to TikTok, many folks are asking whether a virtual private network could bypass the restriction.
VPNs hide your public IP address, which, similar to your home address, indicates your general geographic location. Using a VPN, you can make apps think you’re located in a different city, state or even country.
However, based on my testing, a VPN didn’t circumvent the US’s brief TikTok ban — or at least not in the way many predicted it might. Here’s how a VPN may or may not let you access TikTok.
I wasn’t able to access TikTok using a VPN in the US when it was taken down
While I’m admittedly not the biggest TikTok aficionado, I do know a lot about VPNs and their capabilities to bypass regional restrictions, like accessing foreign Netflix libraries or streaming BBC iPlayer outside of the UK. On Sunday, I woke to text messages from friends asking if a VPN would let them hop on TikTok, so I experimented over my morning coffee.
In that testing, a VPN did not let me access TikTok. I tried multiple VPNs, including NordVPN, Proton VPN and Surfshark but still received an access denied message each time: “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”
I even tried obfuscated servers, which try to hide the fact that you’re using a VPN. Obfuscated servers can be helpful in situations where websites, apps or networks (like school Wi-Fi) don’t work well with VPNs.
A VPN may let you circumvent a TikTok ban for continued access to the social media site — but not in the way you think
Before the short-lived US TikTok ban went into effect, I performed some preliminary testing by simulating the process of trying to access the site in a country that has blocked it. I set up a VPN router using a Windows PC, selected a server in India (where TikTok is banned) and then connected to that Wi-Fi hotspot from my phone. Sure enough, when I launched TikTok, it thought I was in India and I received a “Services not available message” that said, “Our services are not available in your country or region. You can still go to Settings and privacy to manage your account, security settings, or privacy settings.”
Next, I performed some VPNception by opening the NordVPN app on my phone and connecting to a server in the UK — where TikTok isn’t banned. I closed TikTok, opened the app again and was able to access it by making TikTok think I was in the UK. Note that I recommend obeying local laws — and didn’t violate any during my testing since Nord’s India server is virtual, so not actually based in India.
Because this method didn’t work when I tried in the US while it was temporarily banned, my hypothesis is that there’s more going on under the hood than basic geo-location, so account registration may be taken into consideration while accessing the social media site. If there’s another ban in the US, that means you might need a non-US TikTok account.
Moreover, on mobile devices, Wired reports that the TikTok app retrieves embedded SIM card information — meaning, in my case, a non-US TikTok account alone may not have worked with a VPN because of SIM card country codes. Theoretically, this restriction would be a non-issue when accessing TikTok on a web browser from your desktop or laptop, with the caveat of TikTok lacking the ability to record new videos.
I’ve reached out to TikTok for more information about how TikTok retrieves location to better understand how a VPN may or may not unblock the app. TikTok didn’t immediately respond to that request. Thankfully, using a VPN to access TikTok in the US isn’t something you need to worry about for now.
You can’t currently download or update TikTok using the Google Play Store or Apple App Store
Although TikTok access has been temporarily restored in the US, you can’t download or update the app on Android via Google Play Store or iPhone/iPad using the Apple App Store. You can still use the TikTok app if you’ve already got it downloaded, but if you don’t have it installed, you’ll need to rely on using the site in your web browser instead.
If you don’t have TikTok installed and are set on having the app on your phone or tablet, you may be able to download it by using a VPN set to a different country where the app isn’t banned, then changing your app store location to that region. However, because of how restrictive and cumbersome the process is, I don’t recommend this workaround. With Google Play, you can change your country only once per year — so if you switch to another nation, you’ll need to wait 12 months before switching it back.
On the Apple App Store, you need to spend your remaining account balance and cancel any subscriptions before changing to a different region. Some users have reported success changing their Apple App Store to a non-US country, downloading TikTok and then changing back without the app being deleted. But having to cancel your subscriptions, like your Apple TV membership, is pretty inconvenient.
A VPN is still a great addition to your app arsenal
Although VPNs may not be the TikTok skeleton key many folks hoped for, they’re still beneficial privacy tools. VPNs are great for international travel, accessing international Netflix or Amazon Prime Video libraries, and hiding your browsing activity from your ISP.
NordVPN is an excellent option with best-in-class internet speed maintenance, outstanding streaming service unblocking and a generous global server network.
Surfshark is a wallet-friendly VPN with blazing-fast speeds, excellent streaming support and unique privacy features.
Proton VPN sports a slew of nifty privacy amenities, including its proprietary Stealth protocol to hide the fact that you’re using a VPN. It’s also solid for streaming and has a huge international web of servers.
For more on virtual private networks, here’s how to use a VPN and the best VPN services on the market.
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