What you need to know: United States TikTok ban

If you're as confused as we were about the future of TikTok, here's a quick summary to get you up-to-date.

Confused about what’s happening with TikTok in the United States? Is it banned? Is it not? Why was there even a ban in the first place?

Don’t worry, you’ve come to the right place! Here’s a quick rundown with everything you need to know.

• Last year the US Congress passed a law banning TikTok in the country. Their reasoning? National security and data privacy concerns related to ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok.

• On Jan 19 the ban officially took effect... but not for long. Just over 12 hours after, users were reporting that the app was working again.

• What happened? Over the weekend, the Trump administration urged companies to keep TikTok live, promising an executive order to delay the law and protect them from penalties.

• TikTok’s service providers, assured by Trump, agreed to restore the app.

• However, while people who already downloaded the app can continue using it, new users won’t be able to (Apple and Google are still keeping TikTok off their app stores).

So, what next? The situation is still very much up in the air and dependent on a number of factors. But for now it seems that TikTok is somewhat back in the US.