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tiktok april 5
tiktok april 5
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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 graduate from the University of Washington, having majored in International Studies: European Studies with a double minor in Spanish and business. Eliza was a writer for the University of Washington chapter and is currently writing for National Her Campus, covering a variety of topics, from music, books, social media, politics, and more.

Beyond Her Campus, Eliza served as the co-president of the University of Washington Euro Club, participated in the University of Washington Women in Business club, while balancing a part-time job.

Currently, Eliza is a student at Northwestern University, pursuing a Masters of Science in Journalism at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.

Additionally, she is perhaps the number-one-super-fan of "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver," with an uncanny ability to quote and recall episodes ranging from the most recent release or from three years ago.