TikTok across the United States has officially been banned, and with now millions of users unable to access the app, many are wondering if a VPN is a viable workaround to the block.

The TikTok ban came into effect seemingly early as thousands of users reported seeing a message display in their app that stated the app was no longer available in the US due to a new law that had been enacted. The law the message is referring to dates back to April last year when the Senate passed a bill that deemed TikTok a national security threat as the app was found to have ties to the Chinese government. The ban was predicated on protecting the data of the approximately 170 million Americans who use the app from being funneled to the Chinese government.
Now that the app has officially gone dark, many are wondering if there is a way to bypass the block and still use the app. The first thing that springs to mind is a VPN or a Virtual Private Network. In a nutshell, a VPN masks the IP address of a user, which is essentially an address linked to an internet connection so data can be correctly sent/received.
VPNs / IP addresses
A VPN masks an IP address and can make it appear a user is located in a different part of the world. VPNs are typically used to hide online activity and to get around blocks assigned to websites and services that are otherwise blocked in their specific location.

IP addresses are assigned to users by Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and the TikTok ban has been implemented at the ISP level, meaning any users that have a US-based IP address won't be able to access the app.
The TikTok ban is encompassing, as the ban has removed the app from both major app marketplaces (App Store / Android Play Store), which means users who haven't already downloaded the app won't be able to. For those that already have TikTok downloaded, turning on a VPN and loading the app should gain that device access to the selected country's version of TikTok. However, this hasn't been thoroughly tested or confirmed, but in theory, it should work given the VPN service being used also masks the user's IP address from the ISP holder.
But IP addresses aren't the only way TikTok can know the location of a device. Geolocation data of the device that has been gathered over time and linked to a TikTok account can reveal its location. Reports indicate that users still wanting to use the TikTok app will have to make a new account with a VPN activated to get around this problem.
Unfortunately, early testing has found that even with a VPN, the TikTok app doesn't work, but the web browser version does, especially if the user hasn't already signed into the web version.