On Friday, April 4th, 2025, current President Donald Trump announced that there will be another postponement of the TikTok ban that was supposed to occur on April 5th, for another 75 days. Trump has officially signed an executive order about the new delay and is attempting to save the popular app that many use, especially students. This TikTok ban was originally supposed to take place on January 19th, 2025 and those 75 days were supposed to end April 5th, 2025.
TikTok is used with over 1.8 billion users worldwide, with 170 million from the United States. The numbers have significantly increased within the past several years, making it one of the most popular and frequently used social media platforms. TikTok’s base is still growing, even though there is a possibility that it’ll get banned sometime in mid-June of 2025. This ban may or may not take place, but the president and vice president, JD Vance, are doing their best to prevent that from happening.
Trump and Vance expected that there would have been a deal for TikTok before April 5th, but they were incorrect. There were no additional details about how the deal was going on President Trump’s post, which lets us know that he still needs time to figure it out and get a deal with TikTok so that it can remain available for users. Important matters and issues still need to be solved. It is hoped that this new delay will save the widely used app with these efforts.
However, if the TikTok ban does eventually take effect, everyone that uses it will have to find an alternative. Some of the possible alternatives for TikTok could be YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and Lemon8. These will likely be more commonly used if TikTok isn’t saved or bought by the end of the extension. The long-term future of TikTok is questionable, but other apps will always be around for people to use instead.
The time that the ban originally took place was a complete disaster for everyday TikTok users and influencers. Many people posted about their secrets and revealed things about themselves that nobody knew. This ban, which occurred on January 19th, 2025, only lasted for about 12 hours while the app went ¨dark¨. It was disappointing to see that so many people revealed things about themselves, only for the app to come back to life just less than a day later. Seeing people so devastated about the loss of an app for a short period of time is concerning for if it gets permanently removed.
Hopefully, TikTok can be bought and saved before the extension deadline. Although nothing has been figured out for TikTok’s future yet, maybe President Trump and the vice president will negotiate a deal to save it.