Comparing 3 TikTok Alternatives: Pros and Cons

For those of us who grew up in the ‘90s and 2000s, it’s easy to think of all social media as U.S.-centric. Yet, as potentially apocalyptic as the TikTok ban has been for U.S. users, most TikTok users are unaffected by it.

The TikTok ban is directed squarely at TikTok and ByteDance. It does not target individual U.S. citizens (nor would such a ban have any chance of being upheld). As such, even if TikTok is eventually banned for good, it is 100% legal for U.S. citizens to access TikTok through another country.

Many people are already familiar with using VPNs to get around country-based content restrictions, but you need a bit more in the case of TikTok. In addition to your IP address, TikTok considers your phone number when determining your location. That means once you get a VPN running, you also have to purchase an eSIM based in another country and then use that eSIM to get a phone number there.

For the most part, TikTok is the same outside the U.S. The only difference is that you’ll see more local content from your spoofed location instead of content from where you live. As such, most people have been purchasing eSIMs based in the U.K., Canada, or other English-speaking countries.

This is the most complicated solution, but it’s the only one that gives you full access to TikTok. It was a lot for people to manage in the space of the week before the ban, but now that a potential ban is at least a few months off, it’s certainly doable for the average TikTok user.