Working around the ban — if you can — is not unlawful, as long as you don’t do anything wrong in how you actually do it. The issue for U.S. users will be that you won’t be able to do that with your existing account. You also can’t do that from the U.S. or possibly even with a cell phone carrying a U.S.-registered SIM or eSIM.

Millions of TikTok users in the United States are no longer able to watch videos on the social media platform as a federal ban on the immensely popular app takes effect. The company's app was removed Saturday evening from prominent app stores,

The app had more than 170 million monthly users in the U.S. The black-out is the result of a law forcing the service offline unless it sheds its ties to ByteDance, its China-based parent company.

Now that TikTok has been disabled for US users, these rival apps can help you get your fix of short-form video.

It's not the first time TikTok has sent a politically motivated pop-up message about the U.S. government's efforts to ban the app due to concerns over its Chinese ownership. In March 2024, the app asked users to call their representatives to ask for an end to the ban.

TikTok was not available for many of its 170 million users in the U.S. hours before a ban on the social media platform was supposed to go into effect.