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ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in US if legal options fail, sources say (www.reuters.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Does is specify ISP blocking directly in the bill?? It was my understanding that it would just prevent US based app stores (Apple, Google) from distributing the app in their stores.

I'm not even sure how ISP blocking would work, unless it was to just blackhole DNS queries to tiktok.com. Having attempted to block DNS lookups for TikTok on my own home router via PiHole, I can say that the app either hard codes IP addresses, or resolves DNS over HTTPS independently of the system DNS settings, so I doubt a DNS based ISP block would be feasible.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Here's the bill (Division H is the relevant part).

I misread "internet hosting service" in the initial section as "Internet service," so I'm guessing it doesn't obligate ISPs to block TikTok or any other service.

It does block server hosts from allowing distribution of blocked apps though. So no local mirrors of the app.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Right they define internet hosting service as:

(5) INTERNET HOSTING SERVICE.—The term “internet hosting service” means a service through which storage and computing resources are provided to an individual or organization for the accommodation and maintenance of 1 or more websites or online services, and which may include file hosting, domain name server hosting, cloud hosting, and virtual private server hosting.

So this would prevent a US organization like AWS, Oracle, etc from hosting the TikTok user data as long as TikTok is owned or a subsidiary of ByteDance or another "foreign adversary".

Elsewhere in the text, they exclude "service providers" from restrictions, so it seems like ISPs are not going to block requests to TikTok.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Yup, that's my read too after a review.

I honestly kinda skimmed that part initially because I was more interested in how it could impact other apps. I don't particularly care about TikTok, I just wanted to know what other apps could be targeted and what the process for that looks like.