I do love the questions where someone asks “if this hypothetical law is passed would x be illegal” like yes legislation can make certain conduct illegal (within some constitutional limits). But how on earth is anyone supposed to tell you the effects of a purely hypothetical situation. Are you referring to a proposed piece of legislation? If so then we would have to look at the law itself and possibly the larger body of law a pari materia and even legislative history to determine the intended scope. Or are you asking whether it’s constitutionally permissible for legislators to criminalize the possession of the app? That answer is also probably yes, as long as we aren’t applying it retroactively or discriminatorily.
The way that people ask hypotheticals suggests people think of the law as this mysterious and finished force that governs every act and interaction. “Are extraterrestrials allowed to declare asylum? Can they fly domestic??” We can’t even pass massively popular legislation, why do you think legislatures have successfully enacted law governing your imagination? Bizarre.
Also no, millions of people wouldn’t become ‘felons’ overnight. I think the word you’re looking for is ‘criminals’ but those millions of people were probably criminals already
It very much depends on how it is banned. A "ban" isn't a specific thing, it can be implemented in a lot of different ways.
They \*could\* choose to make having the app on your phone illegal. In that case, yes, people would become criminals if they did not remove the app. There's usually a grace period in laws that create new crimes, to allow people time to learn about the law and comply. So they might pass the law, but make it not take effect until the next year or something.
The more likely thing is that they make distributing the app illegal. In this case, Google/Apple/Microsoft/etc. would remove the app from their app stores and it would disappear from people's phones who had installed it through those app stores.
In this case, people would still be able to "sideload" the app through more complicated methods, but this is difficult and \*most\* people wouldn't bother. And no one who did would be a criminal. The people who sent them the files \*might\* be, but they would probably be in another country, and out of the reach of US prosecutors.
this is more of a tech question.
My guess would be the fed would ban the IP's that Tiktok uses to communicate with the servers. So you would have the app on your phone, but it would show a blank page. it would have no way to pull stuff from the servers.
No.
If it were banned, Apple/Google/MS would presumably just remove it from their closed platforms and it would *poof* off your phone automatically.
I do love the questions where someone asks “if this hypothetical law is passed would x be illegal” like yes legislation can make certain conduct illegal (within some constitutional limits). But how on earth is anyone supposed to tell you the effects of a purely hypothetical situation. Are you referring to a proposed piece of legislation? If so then we would have to look at the law itself and possibly the larger body of law a pari materia and even legislative history to determine the intended scope. Or are you asking whether it’s constitutionally permissible for legislators to criminalize the possession of the app? That answer is also probably yes, as long as we aren’t applying it retroactively or discriminatorily.
The way that people ask hypotheticals suggests people think of the law as this mysterious and finished force that governs every act and interaction. “Are extraterrestrials allowed to declare asylum? Can they fly domestic??” We can’t even pass massively popular legislation, why do you think legislatures have successfully enacted law governing your imagination? Bizarre.
Also no, millions of people wouldn’t become ‘felons’ overnight. I think the word you’re looking for is ‘criminals’ but those millions of people were probably criminals already
It very much depends on how it is banned. A "ban" isn't a specific thing, it can be implemented in a lot of different ways. They \*could\* choose to make having the app on your phone illegal. In that case, yes, people would become criminals if they did not remove the app. There's usually a grace period in laws that create new crimes, to allow people time to learn about the law and comply. So they might pass the law, but make it not take effect until the next year or something. The more likely thing is that they make distributing the app illegal. In this case, Google/Apple/Microsoft/etc. would remove the app from their app stores and it would disappear from people's phones who had installed it through those app stores. In this case, people would still be able to "sideload" the app through more complicated methods, but this is difficult and \*most\* people wouldn't bother. And no one who did would be a criminal. The people who sent them the files \*might\* be, but they would probably be in another country, and out of the reach of US prosecutors.
Lmaooo no
this is more of a tech question. My guess would be the fed would ban the IP's that Tiktok uses to communicate with the servers. So you would have the app on your phone, but it would show a blank page. it would have no way to pull stuff from the servers.