The TikTok VPN
Access TikTok from anywhere
TikTok is fully banned in some of the world's largest countries, restricted on government devices in dozens more, and blocked on most school and workplace networks. Lantern gets you back on.
How to access TikTok with Lantern
Step 1: Get Lantern
Download Lantern on your phone or computer. It's free.
Step 2: Open and connect
Open Lantern and tap to connect. Lantern picks the best protocol for your network automatically.
Step 3: Enjoy TikTok
Open the TikTok app or go to tiktok.com. You're scrolling.
Where is TikTok blocked?
TikTok's availability is a moving target. Full bans, partial restrictions, and government device bans exist across dozens of countries, and the list keeps growing.
Full nationwide bans (app unavailable for everyone):
- India — banned since June 2020, affecting 1.4 billion people. Still in effect.1
- Afghanistan — banned by the Taliban government in April 20222
- Iran — blocked as part of broader internet restrictions3
- Nepal — banned in late 2023, citing concerns over "social harmony"4
- Somalia — banned in August 2023 alongside other social media apps3
- Albania — first European country to impose a full ban, enforced starting March 20255
Partial or situational bans:
- China — TikTok itself isn't available in China. Chinese users have Douyin, a separate app from the same parent company.1
- United States — a sale-or-ban law was enacted in 2024. TikTok briefly went dark on January 18, 2025 before service resumed the next day. After multiple deadline extensions throughout 2025, a deal for US operations was finalized in January 2026.6
- Pakistan — has banned TikTok repeatedly, then lifted bans after negotiations2
- Indonesia, Bangladesh, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan — various temporary or partial restrictions3
Government device bans (public can still use it):
The EU, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Denmark, Norway, Latvia, Taiwan, and NATO have all banned TikTok on official government devices.7 In the US, most states and some universities have banned TikTok on state-owned devices and campus Wi-Fi.7
School and workplace networks:
Even where TikTok is legal, it's one of the most commonly blocked apps on school, university, and corporate networks. If your network blocks TikTok, Lantern routes around it.
Why TikTok blocking is different
TikTok is blocked for more different reasons in more different ways than almost any other app. Some countries block it for political control. Others cite youth safety, data privacy, or cultural values. The US situation was unique — a regulatory and business dispute, not traditional censorship.
This means the technical approach to unblocking TikTok depends on where you are. In India and Iran, the block is at the network level with deep packet inspection. On a school Wi-Fi, it's usually a simple domain or app block. Lantern handles both.
Lantern runs more circumvention protocols than any other VPN, including Shadowsocks, VLESS, Hysteria 2, and others designed to bypass deep packet inspection. It automatically picks the right protocol for your network, so you don't need to configure anything.
Why Lantern works when other VPNs don't
In countries like Iran, where TikTok is blocked alongside most Western platforms, standard VPN protocols are actively detected and shut down. Lantern's traffic looks like regular web browsing, making it much harder for firewalls to identify and block.
Lantern is also a nonprofit. It exists to keep people connected, not to sell subscriptions. During Iran's 2022 internet shutdowns, Lantern carried 13% of all Iranian internet traffic. That kind of real-world performance under pressure is what Lantern is built for.