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TikTok could bypass US blockade by making a PWA

31 pointsby lknik01/17/202520 commentsview on HN

Comments

lbhdc01/17/2025

I think what this misses is that TikTok will lose the ability to pay content creators. It may also cause legal repercussions for advertisers who want to spend on the platform.

From TikToks perspective, they may want the hard decouple so their users pressure their representatives. If they make a pwa or some other means to subvert the ban available it could undermine peoples desire to act.

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sschueller01/17/2025

Funny is that even with the executive order to not enforce the law for now, it puts Apple and Google in legal limbo if they don't remove the app. They are the ones that will have to pay huge fines, not TikTok.

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hammock01/17/2025

My experience with PWAs is… not great. What are the best and/or most popular PWAs?

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n144q01/17/2025

Aren't CDNs also going to be liable if they serve TikTok content?

dlcarrier01/17/2025

They already have a mobile web interface, that anyone can crate a shortcut to. It'll work fine as-is, with or without a 'PWA' buzzword.

If a government really wanted to block internet access to a service provider, they'd block access to their servers, on all ports. The workaround would be a VPN, not a web interface.

The US has this strange banning-but-not-really, because really banning it would be prohibited by the constitution's first amendment.

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adastra2201/18/2025

Blockade? That’s quite some hyperbole. A blockade is an act of war.

gausswho01/17/2025

App stores being a useful tool of state control (vis a vis the open web) does make one wonder if it factors into the government pursuing them as an abuse of market competition.

methou01/18/2025

I'm seeing many sites sending my behavior data to analytics.tiktok, will this be a part of the us blockade?

dmvjs01/18/2025

the API is more limited on the web vs native

anothername1201/17/2025

They took my porn in Texas an now this wtf