‘It’s actually unhappy’: US TikTok customers rethink app over considerations about privateness and censorship

[ad_1] M any TikTok customers throughout the US say they’re rethinking their relationship with the platform since its possession and phrases and circumstances have lately modified, with some citing censorship and lack of belief as the reason why they’re eradicating themselves from the app.

Keara Sullivan, a 26-year-old comic, says TikTok jumpstarted her profession and supplied a pathway to getting a supervisor and a literary agent.

“I’m not a kind of creators who’s a TikTok hater,” mentioned Sullivan, who has greater than half one million followers on the platform. “I’m very clear about the truth that the place I'm in my profession is basically due to TikTok.”

That’s why, she mentioned, it’s “actually unhappy” for her to step away from the platform – at the least for now.

TikTok, the short-form video platform owned by Chinese language firm ByteDance, has confronted scrutiny after the choice to create a brand new US-based entity, TikTok USDS Joint Enterprise, in an effort to keep away from being banned within the nation. Buyers within the majority US-owned enterprise embody Oracle, which is owned by Trump ally Larry Ellison, the non-public equity-group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX, who will personal 80.1% of the brand new entity. ByteDance will personal the remaining 19.9%.

The announcement was made 5 years after Donald Trump first threatened to ban the favored app within the US throughout his first time period in workplace.

TikTok’s new deal has been accompanied by modifications to app’s phrases and circumstances, reviews of technical points and a rising debate amongst customers and creators about privateness and censorship. The each day common of US customers deleting the TikTok app has elevated 195% from 22 Januaryto 28 January in comparison with the earlier 90 days, in line with information collected by Sensor Tower, a market intelligence agency.

Many social media customers have voiced concern over language within the app’s phrases and circumstances, which particularly level out the forms of information that TikTok could acquire on its customers, together with “racial and ethnic origin” and “sexual life or sexual orientation, standing as transgender or nonbinary, citizenship or immigration standing, or monetary data”.

That language was current within the earlier model of platform’s phrases, which have been up to date in 2024, however one noticeable new characteristic within the phrases is the specific acknowledgment that TikTok collects exact location information (until you decide out), as reported by Mashable.

TikTok person Julia, a 32-year-old caregiver based mostly in Washington, informed the Guardian that she deleted the app as quickly as she heard concerning the firm’s new settlement.

“I belief Oracle and Ellison about as a lot as I belief consuming a uncooked burger on a scorching summer season day,” she mentioned.

After the killing of Alex Pretti by ICE brokers on 24 January, some content material creators expressed concern that movies condemning the federal company have been being suppressed by TikTok.

Comic Meg Stalter mentioned in an Instagram put up {that a} video she made urging fellow Christians to talk up in opposition to ICE techniques was not being uploaded to the app. In response, she determined to delete the app.

“[TikTok] is below new possession and we're being utterly censored and monitored,” she wrote in her put up.

California governor Gavin Newsom additionally voiced concern about potential TikTok censorship this previous week, writing on X: “Following TikTok’s sale to a Trump-aligned enterprise group, our workplace has acquired reviews, and independently confirmed situations, of suppressed content material crucial of President Trump.” Newsom introduced that the state can be launching an investigation into the platform and whether or not it's violating California regulation by censoring anti-Trump content material.

TikTok USDS Joint Enterprise attributed the problems to an influence outage at a US datacenter, unrelated to the weekend’s occasions. On 27 January, the entity issued the next assertion: “We’ve made vital progress in recovering our U.S. infrastructure with our U.S. information heart associate. Nonetheless, the U.S. person expertise should have some technical points, together with when posting new content material. We’re dedicated to bringing TikTok again to its full capability as quickly as potential.”

A 21-year-old software program engineer, who requested to stay nameless, first encountered TikTok in 2020 as a highschool junior.

“I used to be amazed how shortly it realized my pursuits, stored up with developments and beneficial issues I might’ve by no means sought out myself,” he mentioned. “For higher or for worse, I used to be in all probability utilizing it at the least 4 hours a day.”

He says he stayed on the app for thus lengthy as a result of high quality of his algorithm; however after TikTok’s momentary shutdown within the US in January 2025, he started to note variations.

“I didn’t like how the pop-up message painted Trump because the ‘savior’ that may deliver again TikTok as soon as he was in workplace,” he mentioned. “After it was introduced again, I observed a big decline in suggestion high quality.”

Sullivan additionally observed main modifications following TikTok’s temporary blackout, together with a discount within the revenue she was receiving via the corporate’s Creator Fund. She finally made the choice to pivot away from TikTok after noticing potential censorship points, together with the banning of Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda, who had 1.4 million followers on the app. Even earlier than TikTok discovered its US proprietor, Sullivan knew that it was in her greatest curiosity to disseminate her content material far and vast.

“Within the web ecosphere, you form of must create these completely different avenues for your self, as a result of you'll be able to’t depend on one platform,” she mentioned. “The algorithm may change at any time.”