After years of news stories threatening a potential TikTok ban, the app finally went dark on January 18th– but only for about 12 hours. Users across America are still trying to piece together exactly what went down during that short window, and what the future of TikTok looks like.

170 million of TikTok’s users are American citizens, and the country’s youth who use the app as a primary source of entertainment and virtual connection make up much of that number. Many Mid-Pacific students are among this population and were affected by the ban.

“I was scared, I hated my life. I was really sad especially since we couldn’t do our Winter Ball transitions. It’s probably unhealthy that I’m this addicted to TikTok, but here we are, and it’s back,” senior Nikko Stack said.

Though the app has since resumed normal operation, the unexpected nature of the ban and near immediate turnaround has students wondering what happened and why.

“It was a little fast, honestly,” senior Gianna Groves said. “It was kind of insane that it was less than a day. I feel like it was kind of used as a ploy to gain a follower base, but honestly, who actually knows what’s going on? No one really knows.”

The United States Government proposed the ban as a way to combat TikTok’s threat to national security, given the fact that TikTok’s owner ByteDance is based in China. The case against TikTok claimed that American data was at risk of being captured by foreign powers.

However, many believe the government may be using the ban as a ploy to skew the perceptions of American citizens and create certain political narratives. Further, some felt President Donald Trump’s involvement in the case raised red flags.

“I feel like how Trump brought it back after a day probably had something to with upping his status and appeal to people. I feel they just banned it because the guy who created it is Chinese, so it’s probably more of a biased thing,” sophomore Lauryn Blake said.

Many found themselves not taking the ban seriously in the months leading up to it, as it had been threatened for years with no action– however, this changed once millions of screens went dark and displayed an update informing American users of the “temporary” unavailability of TikTok’s services.

“I didn’t actually believe it when I saw it, because they always say TikTok is going to be banned and it never is, so I didn’t save anything and I was freaking out,” senior Brooklen Chong said. “I looked at my phone and I was like ‘No way… my whole life is crashing down on me right now’”.

However, this panic was quickly relieved. By the next day, a new information banner displayed a welcome back message, saying, “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.” Some were overcome with excitement, but others were left questioning what occurred, and what President Trump’s role was in restoring the beloved yet controversial app.

Since its introduction, Trump backed the ban and was openly against TikTok remaining available to U.S citizens, so his sudden support in reviving the app led many to wonder what his prerogative was and how it will impact the users of the app.

“TikTok coming back was surprising in the sense that we proliferated this idea of all the systems being against us. However, when it came back, we saw the opposite of this, being that for some reason they listened to us. That actually caused a lot of speculation and tension,” freshman River Holden said. “Why would they give back the app that they worked so hard to take control over?”

Currently, TikTok continues to function normally, and many of its users have resumed typical activity– but some feel the events of the ban have broader political implications and remain uncertain about the future of TikTok.

“I think that people are going to be so reoccupied being on TikTok that they’ll inevitably forget about these tense situations and continue their regular programming. However, now that Donald Trump is elected, a lot of people are sort of continuing this education on the political system and their beliefs about the future of this country, giving many people insight about the current political decisions being made,” Holden said.