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tiktok april 5
tiktok april 5
May Gauthier via TikTok
Culture > News

Will TikTok Shut Down On April 5? The U.S. Ban Deadline Is Looming

For the Americans who enjoy mindlessly scrolling on TikTok (myself included), now seems to be the time to remind you that the U.S. TikTok ban from January 2025 was not cancelled — it was just delayed. More importantly, it was delayed to April 5 — which, if you haven’t noticed, is almost here. 

In case you blocked this piece of U.S. government drama out of your mind (perhaps to make room for all of the other U.S. government drama currently going on), here’s a quick recap: The idea of a ban was first proposed in the summer of 2020 by the Trump administration, citing risks to national security due to TikTok being owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company. The idea was that TikTok would need to be sold to a U.S. company, or else it would be banned in the country. The ban was then pushed through the House and Senate and later signed into law by President Joe Biden on April 24, 2024. ByteDance was given a deadline of Jan. 19, 2025 to make the sale or else the U.S. would make it illegal to host TikTok in the country. On Jan. 18, one day before the ban, TikTok indeed went offline before restoring service in the U.S. with a note of thanks to President Donald Trump for working out a deal to keep the app around.

But this was only a temporary respite. Trump extended TikTok’s sell-by deadline to April 5, giving ByteDance a few more months to work out a deal with an American buyer. A few companies and wealthy individuals have been in talks to buy the app, but as of March 31 — just says before the deadline — nothing has been set in stone, at least not publicly. 

tiktok ban april 5
cottonbro studio via Pexels

So, will TikTok go dark once again for the 170 million Americans who use the app? According to Trump, no one should get too upset just yet. According to a March 30 report from Reuters, Trump is optimistic a deal will happen. “We have a lot of buyers,” he said. “There’s tremendous interest in TikTok.” 

However, this comes after the Trump-imposed tariffs that specifically target Chinese corporations and the Chinese government, which might make a deal difficult to complete. Per Reuters, Trump has proposed that he might “give [China] a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done,” considering that the Chinese government needs to approve the deal for it to go through. If that doesn’t happen, Trump has previously mentioned that he would be willing to extend the deadline once again.

So, while TikTok’s fate is still very uncertain, you can hold onto *some* hope.

Eliza Disbrow

Washington '26

Eliza Disbrow is a senior at the University of Washington, majoring in International Studies: European Studies with a double minor in Spanish and business. Eliza is a writer for both the University of Washington chapter and for National HerCampus, covering a variety of topics, from music, books, social media, politics, to anime.

Beyond Her Campus, Eliza serves as the co-president of the University of Washington Euro Club, participates in the University of Washington Women in Business club, and works part-time at Evereve.

In her free time, Eliza can be seen taking in the sights of Seattle on any of the available forms of public transportation, normally with a book in hand and headphones in her ears. She plays guitar and bass, mainly as an excuse to play either Fall Out Boy or Ghost to family and friends. Additionally, she is perhaps the number-one super fan of "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver," somehow able to quote or recall episodes ranging from the most recent release or from three years ago.