I think what this misses is that TikTok will lose the ability to pay content creators. It may also cause legal repercussions for advertisers who want to spend on the platform.
From TikToks perspective, they may want the hard decouple so their users pressure their representatives. If they make a pwa or some other means to subvert the ban available it could undermine peoples desire to act.
Ding ding ding!.
They have a web-app, IDK if it works as the equivalent of a PWA or not, however it would likely mean all sorts of legal hurdles not just for the advertisers and the payees of that advert money (creators). Attempts to subvert that would just be fuel to push for heightened AML/KYC regs.
> If they make a pwa or some other means to subvert the ban available it could undermine peoples desire to act.
To your point, making a PWA would be the worst idea at the moment; all the hurdles of advertising dollars in and paying content creators out still exist, but the user base (if you're gonna put pressure you want numbers) will likely just think 'oh here is a workaround' and just live with it. [0]
On the other hand, it's perhaps a gambit's bluff; By that I mean, a PWA is probably far less 'intrusive' than your typical installed app, and could be a way to push back against the claims of it being used for 'surveillance'. [1]
[0] - I mean, Reddit's mobile app is trash but they try to force you to use it anyway...
[1] - I'm willing to accept this as a possibility but I'd need more proof than the bit of anecdata I have that they are more malevolent than FB/Alpha/etc to change my overall position, will admit some of that response is because some of those companies have had US tendrils involved for a long time...
Funny is that even with the executive order to not enforce the law for now, it puts Apple and Google in legal limbo if they don't remove the app. They are the ones that will have to pay huge fines, not TikTok.
The executive branch whose first and only job during times of peace is to enforce the laws is now expected to not enforce the law? This whole fiasco is dumb.
My experience with PWAs is… not great. What are the best and/or most popular PWAs?
Not that popular yet, but the Newspeak programming language runs entirely as a PWA, up to the IDE. Makes it really easy to set up. See https://github.com/newspeaklanguage/newspeak and https://groups.google.com/g/newspeaklanguage/c/s7c74c4QVvM
In India, most delivery apps have PWA variants which include tobacco products that aren't available in the mobile apps. These PWAs work fine and I don't see any difference in performance.
Youtube is probably one of the most popular
I think the Starbucks PWA is pretty good example from an implementation standpoint.
Facebook and Instagram are almost useable. Messenger.com is PITA.
X/twitter pretty ok.
Aren't CDNs also going to be liable if they serve TikTok content?
They already have a mobile web interface, that anyone can crate a shortcut to. It'll work fine as-is, with or without a 'PWA' buzzword.
If a government really wanted to block internet access to a service provider, they'd block access to their servers, on all ports. The workaround would be a VPN, not a web interface.
The US has this strange banning-but-not-really, because really banning it would be prohibited by the constitution's first amendment.
How exactly would the do this block? At the ISP level? I don't _think_ the US Government has ever done that before, a block on that level would be pretty unprecedented and might be more then they are willing to do.
It desperately forwards you to the app store right now.
Given the choice, they'd much rather you use the version that has much better access to location data and notifications, but barring access to that, they'll likely turn off the nagging and let you use the web interface in peace.
Blockade? That’s quite some hyperbole. A blockade is an act of war.
App stores being a useful tool of state control (vis a vis the open web) does make one wonder if it factors into the government pursuing them as an abuse of market competition.
I'm seeing many sites sending my behavior data to analytics.tiktok, will this be a part of the us blockade?
the API is more limited on the web vs native
They took my porn in Texas an now this wtf