What’s happening with TikTok in the US and what will it mean for Australia?

According to recent reports, TikTok has restored services in the U.S. after “darkening” Saturday night U.S. time. The company shut down its services ahead of a nationwide ban being put in place takes effect on Sunday.

On Sunday, however, President Donald Trump chose announced that he would issue an executive order after he takes office on Monday, to “extend the period before the law’s ban comes into force”.

TikTok has thanked Trump, says it is a strong position “against arbitrary censorship”.

What does it mean for TikTok to ‘go dark’?

To make the app unavailable in the US, TikTok went with two strategies. First, TikTok was made unavailable to download from the US version of Apple’s App Store, Google Play and other app providers where you could download the app.

Second, to disable services only for users in the United States, TikTok used the user’s IP address – this indicates where in the world the user is located. If necessary, the same technical process can be carried out in any part of the world, including Australia.

However, the service should only be affected for people in the United States. There have been reports of sites like Reddit that some users outside the US, including those who originally opened a TikTok account in the US, have been affected – but this is likely to be temporary.

If TikTok remained dark, people who still wanted to access TikTok in the US would have to use a virtual private network, or VPN. This can make it appear as if the user’s IP address is coming from somewhere else in the world.

So is TikTok banned in the US or not?

Officially, TikTok is currently banned from operating in the United States. The law was passed by Congress in April last year and came into effect on January 19 after that survived a Supreme Court challenge launched by TikTok.

The law was designed to force Chinese company ByteDance to either sell TikTok in the US or face a ban enforced by steep penalties.

However, Trump’s statement on Sunday made it clear that no sanctions would be enacted against service providers who keep TikTok available while it is apparently banned.

Can Trump ‘Save’ TikTok?

Trump’s promise to somehow revive TikTok was part of his election campaign, so this statement comes as no surprise.

While Trump cannot overturn the law, his goal is to extend the deadline TikTok has been given to try to sell the app in the United States. The law does not specify details about potential buyers or ownership structures, other than that they “must not be controlled by a foreign adversary” (specifically China, in this case).

Overriding a law passed by Congress and approved by the Supreme Court is unlikely to stick, even if Trump could circumvent the law by placating app stores and cloud service providers they will not be prosecuted in the event of a breach.

In general, the situation is smooth and unclear. Among some users, there is a feeling that no one knows what is going to happen, but everything will be fine in the end. The fact that an app can go dark and then be restored in light of an announcement from a politician in less than a day shows that there is a huge lack of stability in social media.

It also shows that large technological and social media in particular have entered the governments’ political agendas in an unprecedented way. The situation with ByteDance shows that governments can use technology companies as political tools against other governments.

What does the US TikTok ban mean for Australia?

Australians should be able to continue using TikTok without issue. But if TikTok eventually goes dark in the US, they won’t see new content from US-based creators.

But there are bigger consequences. Last year, Australia banned children under 16 from all social media, although the details of how exactly that will work are yet to be determined.

Australia’s reasons for the ban are fundamentally different from why TikTok was banned in the US. In the US it is about foreign ownership, while in Australia the government has expressed concern about the well-being of young people. (This issue has been widely debated by experts.)

But the fact that banning social media of any kind has been on the agenda at all shows that we’re going to see a lot more political games involving social media and big tech in general.

Social media companies and governments are now locked in a global power struggle that is playing out in several countries: from the United States and Australia to others such as Brazil.

This is a new kind of conflict where governments try to control or regulate large tech companies and tech companies struggle to maintain their independence and power.

The outcome of these battles will likely shape how online spaces are governed and who ultimately controls the digital world we all use. Follow along.