Quick Guide: Using TikTok With a VPN

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil

Clare Black from Morley, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

“TikTok, Mr. Shou. Your time is nearly up.”

– U.S. Congress addressing TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, whilst twirling a large handlebar mustache.

Though I hardly use TikTok, as someone who dallies at the intersection of tech and media I am intrigued, from a technical standpoint, by the exercise of accessing TikTok from the USA.

After a few failed attempts I succeeded at logging in, with two large caveats: I had to create a new account and can only use browsers (mobile and desktop), not a mobile app. I’m largely in the Apple sphere and have not attempted access from Windows or Linux, though I imagine the steps are broadly applicable. Without further preamble, here are the steps I took:

Guide

  1. Setup a VPN for your device. I’ve used ExpressVPN in the past and renewed my subscription.
  2. Enable the VPN and change the location to some non-US location. I selected Germany.
  3. Open a private browser window[1].
  4. Open TikTok and click Log in.
  5. Click Sign up at the bottom.
  6. Use phone or email.
  7. Enter a new email address, NOT the address used for the old account.[2]
  8. Finish going through the setup process.

And, voila! So long as you stay on the VPN you can resume use of the site and rebuild your footprint.

Conclusions

Even using this new account, on a VPN, I could not get the iOS mobile app working. I don’t know much about app development; perhaps there is some region signature in the app itself that prevents its usage. I didn’t try that hard and perhaps someone else will figure it out. But mobile Safari worked just fine, as did my desktop browser.

The above is a technical exercise I performed out of an interest in seeing what would work. While I read somewhere the US won’t prosecute TikTok users[3], as I already attested I don’t use TikTok[4] and don’t intend to use it now. I was only interested in what was theoretically and practically possible, and share my results here.

  1. Clearing cookies/cache in a regular browser window might be sufficient, but I didn’t try it. ↩︎

  2. Did you know Gmail supports multiple email addresses under a single account by appending + and . characters? I don’t know if it will work, here, as I used entirely distinct email providers, but worth a shot! ↩︎

  3. This is not legal advice. ↩︎

  4. I’ve posted a single video. Have you seen it? Oh, well, I guess too late, now. ↩︎

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