I have a 'smart'phone but no service. I download apps on my computer, move them to the 'phone', install them. How many people will do this with Tiktok if we ban it?

Carriers might ban the entire network, not just the package.
So you will need proxy in another country to access it, which is risky. Not many would take the risk.

Banning never solved the issue..

People can also use the website if sideloading is an issue.

What's tiktok? .... And who needs it anyway? One of those waste your time sites like facebook I suppose?

I realize that's probably a rhetorical question but anyway it's a weapon operated by Bytedance on behalf of the CCP aimed at generation Alpha in the West. The apparent goal is cultural genocide. It works by preying on the kids at the age they are most mentally vulnerable and just starting to form a cultural identity. It has been succeeding very well in that regard by creating a first-of-its-kind disconnect between gen Alpha and the preceding cohorts. CBS 60 Minutes had a good episode on it a while back, which sadly did not get the traction it deserved perhaps due to discussion getting moved to social control media (and thus censorship). Search the CBS site for the words "spinach tiktok versus opium tiktok" Or for more detail, with references, see The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt.

As for the original question, "side-loading" is a term of Apple propaganda intended to stigmatize and marginalize the concept of installing software of your choice on equipment which you own. Both iOS and Android are mostly FOSS components even if they are well-hidden and appear proprietary and/or have proprietary components. Yet even on proprietary systems, you have the right to install and run the software of your choice regardless of whether psychological games or technical restrictions are thrown in your way.

India has had great success so far in banning Bytedance's Tiktok. Technically a ban would not be exceptionally difficult but after that those self-injurious enough to get a hold of it anyway would then need to expose themselves to it via a VPN.

This one?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lzJAzZmPQys

The only social media that I use sparingly is FB(my 21 year old tells me that it is social media for old people). I've seen tik tok videos pop up here and there. I don't use it.

Yes. That's it, though it focuses too much on the collection more than the goals and purpose of the collection.

The 'expert' I heard on NPR this morning described only the app not updating, not also the platform being banned. He may have been wrong.

Tor? A vpn?

What's risky? We may ban it, but we aren't going to put American kids in jail.

A short-form user-generated video repository.

No one.

Isn't time-wasting the #2 use of the Internet - after porn? Users may be wasting their time; ByteDance is making book.

I didn't know it was pejorative. A friend used it when explaining to me how to get software on my 'smart'phone without service.

From what I have heard about the law that was passed, the only punishment is for the app stores that carry the app. So Android users can still side-load, Apple will have to use a website.

The additional layer of risk with integrating a service between two other services, and the fact that node operator is in another country?
Think of it as crossing an intersection, if you had to cross 2 roads before, now if one crossing is banned you must cross an additional road to go around the banned crossing.
So you risk getting hit by a car in 3 spots and not just 2.

Other details you're asking about, no idea. All I know that some folks post videos there, never been there myself.

Must be a bad world when one wants to let a hacker in their phone.

Perhaps not many will do so given that Tiktok's target audience seems to be children and morons.

Children and morons have money. People who want money may serve them. TikTok makes money on them.