The Great ByteDance Blockade: Your International Account Won’t Save You
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Apple is blocking users in the United States from installing or updating multiple ByteDance-owned apps, even if the user has a valid Chinese App Store account, Wired reports.
While ByteDance is best known for the controversial TikTok app, the Chinese developer also distributes several other apps on the App Store, including Hypic, Lark, Capcut, and Lemon8.
Until recently, iPhone users in the US could download, install, and update these from the App Store just like any others. However, Wired notes that Apple has recently begun blocking the installation or updating of any ByteDance-owned apps — even for users that have a valid Chinese App Store account.
In speaking with dozens of users who have reported the issue, Wired learned that those attempting to download a ByteDance-developed app now see a message that says, “This app is unavailable in the country or region you’re in.”
The timing of the blockade may be connected to the recent transfer of TikTok’s US operations to the TikTok USDS Joint Venture, a new company that was set up to transfer control of the social media platform in the US from ByteDance to a “non-adversarial” primary owner. While the Chinese company retains a 19.9 percent stake, the majority share is now in the hands of US-based investors.
Apple, ByteDance, and TikTok USDS Joint Venture all declined to comment when contacted by Wired.
How We Got Here: From PAFACA to Pam Bondi
In 2024, Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), the so-called “TikTok ban” law that ordered TikTok to be divested into “non-adversarial” ownership by January 19, 2025 or risk being shut down completely.
A full TikTok ban went very briefly into effect on January 18, 2025, during which all of its US servers were shut down for about 18 hours and Apple published a since-deleted support document with a list of the following 11 apps owned by ByteDance and its subsidiaries that it said would “no longer [be] available in the United States,” also adding that “visitors to the United States might have limited access to features.”
- TikTok
- TikTok Studio
- TikTok Shop Seller Center
- CapCut
- Lemon8
- Hypic
- Lark – Team Collaboration
- Lark – Rooms Display
- Lark Rooms Controller
- Gauth: AI Study Companion
- MARVEL SNAP
TikTok’s brief blackout ended after President-elect Donald Trump intervened, promising to sign an executive order to reinstate it as soon as he took office the next day. However, Apple and Google refused to reinstate the apps due to the legal uncertainties around the President’s authority to effectively nullify a bill of Congress. They remained unavailable until mid-February, returning only after Attorney General Pam Bondi provided written assurance that the two companies wouldn’t face any legal consequences.
Since then, it’s been business as usual for the ByteDance-owned apps, but it now appears that Apple is reinstating the original crackdown now that TikTok itself is under US control, since the rest of the apps weren’t part of the deal, and remain 100% under ByteDance’s ownership.
While most of the attention around PAFACA was focused on TikTok, the law actually barred companies like Apple and Google from distributing any of ByteDance’s apps, stating that no company can “distribute, maintain, or update […] a foreign adversary controlled application \[…\] within the land or maritime borders of the United States.”
The January 2025 support document explained that while these apps would remain on any devices they were already installed on, they would no longer be available for download, even if users deleted them or moved to a new device. All in-app purchases and new subscriptions were also disabled for these apps.
US users were also warned that the apps would not be updated when new versions were released, meaning that eventually some app functionality could disappear, and that there could be performance, security, and compatibility issues with future versions of iOS and iPadOS.
Users would also be unable to download or update ByteDance’s apps while visiting the US, but they would remain fully accessible in the other countries and regions where they were available.
