Sad TikTokers Get Sadder After Learning VPN Won’t Save Them From US Ban

Desperate American TikTokers looking for a fix after the beloved social app went dark are having a tough time avoiding the ban.

Users on Sunday were just beginning to realize that the Chinese-owned app remains opaque even when using a VPN.

Virtual private networks can trick websites and applications into thinking that a user is in another country. VPN software is commonly used in countries where an oppressive government restricts access to social media – such as Iran, China or Russia.

But TikTok assured that its shutdown could not be avoided so easily.

“Whoever said a vpn would work after banning tiktok, you are going straight to hell,” wrote one frustrated user.

Another added: “went through the process of setting up a vpn to access tiktok and still not working.”

TikTok chose to shut down at midnight on Sunday, rather than sell its US business and comply with the mandate of a law passed by Congress in April.

Anyone who tries to access the app is met with a message saying it is working with President-elect Trump to find a solution.

Trump, who takes office on Monday, paused the ban until he could negotiate a US takeover of 50% ownership of the app.

Members of Congress who supported the ban said TikTok cannot return to the US until it is out of Chinese hands.

Shutting down TikTok in the US apparently bans any accounts created in the United States, even if users activate a VPN.

The Post also confirmed that trying to access the site with a VPN from inside the US doesn’t work — even without an account.

After the app went dark early Saturday for 170 million Americans, exasperated users of the app vented their frustrations on X and Instagram — with many searching for quick fixes or hacks to circumvent the federal law that banned the app after it failed to find a new owner who was not is not chinese.

“PSA: VPNs don’t work if your TikTok account was created in the US. You have to create a whole new account “in” another country,” one person wrote on X.

“Just set up a VPN for Canada and TikTok still didn’t work,” wrote another frustrated TikTok user on X.

There seem to be several solutions. Some users claimed that using a VPN on a computer allowed access to the app – but only if the account was created outside the US.

The total shutdown of TikTok is similar to its tactics in the Chinese enclave of Hong Kong. It announced it was backing down on draconian national security laws there – in a bid to assuage concerns about Chinese government control.

TikTok was already banned in mainland China – Chinese citizens instead use Douyin, a TikTok app with Chinese features.

Simple VPNs also cannot penetrate the app ban there.

Both apps are owned by Beijing-based ByteDance.

The app’s shutdown had been widely anticipated after the Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld congressional legislation requiring the platform’s Chinese-owned parent to divest its stake in the company by January 19 or face a national ban.