After a few contentious years of back-and-forth, TikTok will likely be banned from operating in the U.S. on Jan. 19. Despite having 170 million users in America – or a little over 50% of the national population – the app has faced heavy controversy from U.S. lawmakers who have worried that TikTok could be used by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to spy on American users.

This is not the first time the U.S. government has threatened to shut down TikTok, but this upcoming ban is posed to actually go through. So what does this mean for American users?

There’s still a chance (though slim) that the ban could be paused or overturned. The language of the law, passed by the Biden Administration back in April, forces TikTok to sell U.S. operations before Jan. 19. If the app is sold, it will remain operational in America.

But there are other potential stopgap measures. TikTok is fighting in the Supreme Court to get the ban overturned. Lower federal courts have ruled in favor of the new law, but if the Supreme Court goes a different direction, the ban will be lifted. If announced before Jan. 19, the ban will be withheld. If announced after Jan. 19, American TikTok operations will face a temporary halt. The court heard arguments on the case on Jan. 10.

Incoming president Donald Trump may also play a role in keeping TikTok on American phones. Trump enters office on Jan. 20, one day after the ban goes into effect. He has previously said he would save the app, though there are a few ways he could do this.

The app won’t disappear off of American phones. Users will still be able to open and use the app – but they will likely face many problems doing so, according to NPR. TikTok will no longer be available in app stores on American devices, which also means users cannot update the app. Updates come frequently to fix bugs, and without periodic updates, the app will eventually be practically unusable.

Americans can use VPNs (virtual private networks) to switch which country their phone appears to be accessing networks from. Using a VPN, one may still be able to access TikTok on a web browser.

It will not be illegal for individuals to access TikTok, just for app stores to offer it and American networks to support it. But TikTok may shut off access to Americans altogether, meaning users will not be able to use the app until the lack of updates make it impossible.

You can download your data. By going to your settings on a web browser version of TikTok, clicking on Manage Account, and then clicking on Data, you can find the option to request a copy of your TikTok data. This allows you to access certain videos in your watch history, but some of this access will not be available without a working copy of the app or browser version of TikTok. 

If there are videos you’d like to maintain access to, such as clips you’ve posted or favorited, you can save them from the app to your camera roll by clicking on the three dots in the bottom right when viewing a video and then clicking “Save Video.”