Apple blocks US users from downloading Chinese ByteDance apps

“Under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Controlled Apps Act, apps developed by ByteDance Ltd. and its subsidiaries — including TikTok, CapCut, Lemon8 and others — will no longer be available for download or updates on the App Store for users in the United States beginning January 19, 2025,” the archived webpage says.

Starting Thursday, ByteDance apps such as TikTok and CapCut (a video editor app) will be launched. Lemon8 (an Instagram-like social media platform) remains available on the US App Store, as it is included in a January 22 deal to transfer TikTok’s US business to a group of investors led by Silver Lake, Oracle and MGX. But the timing of the deal coincides with Apple’s decision to ban downloads of this other group of ByteDance apps.

that Executive order President Trump in September extended the deadline for the TikTok ban or recall law until January 23, 2026. One day before that deadline, TikTok announced She publicly announced that she had made a dealSaying that “the guarantees provided by the joint venture will also cover CapCut, Lemon8 and a range of other applications and websites in the United States.” But the announcement did not explicitly state whether other ByteDance apps would be included in the transfer. A few days later, people started reporting that they were unable to download Douyin in the US.

Geo-blocking solution

The restrictions on downloading ByteDance apps in the US show how Apple is increasingly using technical restrictions to separate different regional versions of the App Store.

Traditionally, the primary way Apple imposed geo-restrictions on iPhone apps was according to the country in which the user registered their Apple ID. To have an Apple account registered in China, for example, a person typically needs a phone number, a payment method, and a billing address in China. But once they register their account, they can download apps designed for the Chinese market no matter where they travel.

However, in recent years, Apple has developed more sophisticated mechanisms for determining the physical location of an App Store user. In 2023, the 9to5Mac technology port will be released I mentioned that Apple devices have created a new system called “countryd” to accurately determine a person’s location based on “data such as current GPS location, country code from the Wi-Fi router, and information obtained from the SIM card.”

Observers assumed that the new system was created in response to EU policy Digital Markets Lawwhich takes effect in 2024 and requires Apple to start allowing people in the European Union to download apps from third-party app marketplaces. Apple has complied with EU regulations, but has restricted access to alternative app stores only to people physically located in EU territory.

The exact mechanism Apple uses to enable geo-blocking of iPhone apps is unclear, says Friso Bustoen, an associate professor of law at Tilburg University, who has studied the impact of EU regulations on Apple. “Presumably there is some processing on the device that says: ‘Look, this phone is somewhere on the EU border,’ so you get a green check mark for eligibility.” And if the device detects that an EU resident has been leaving the region for more than 90 days, according to the Apple report. policy“That eligibility has been withdrawn,” Bustoin says.