Left out of the discussion is whether the president actually has the authority to ban an app without due process...
Generally, most lawyers would say that his authority is limited to the use of tiktok by federal employees or members of the armed forces. Banning the app for everyone at the national level would require more than an executive order.
Has the US ever done this before? Force internet providers to ban certain IP's? Because this also, ironically, is how China blocks the majority of the western internet
I don't think the US has ever blocked at the IP level. ICE and DHS typically just seize naughty domains by taking over their DNS records (recent examples at http://coronaprevention.org and http://chinaseatbelt.com).
For entities with a US presence, the threat of prosecution usually does the trick (see
https://codeisfreespeech.com/)
all five of them. Remove it from app stores, make it illegal to carry and it's toast. If no one in your circle has that app, no point on installing it.
