People are deleting TikTok after realizing 'terrifying' new terms of service

It's the dawn of a new era for TikTok, and two years since services were suspended (for a day), the continued threats that the short-form video platform could be banned in the USA look like they’re finished.

Remember that it was President Donald Trump who first floated the idea of banning TikTok during his first term, although he's since had a change of heart. There were fears that the Chinese-owned ByteDance was stealing our data and spying on us, and although it refused to diversify ahead of the deadline put forward by the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, the POTUS signed a series of extensions.

That's all changed with a new deal that's seen the formation of the TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, serving as an independent entity that's governed by a seven-member board of directors. Alongside this, three managing investors for US operations include Oracle, which is headed up by Trump ally Larry Ellison.

There are still plenty of questions about the 'secret sauce' algorithm that pumps content to our FYP, although TikTok has said this will be "secured in Oracle's US cloud environment."

Away from complaints that the Trump administration is already 'stifling' content that's critical of the POTUS and ICE, as well as mentions of Jeffrey Epstein, some users are apparently deleting their TikTok due to the new Terms of Service. Tom's Guide refers to a 'broken' TikTok, pointing to TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC's 80.1% ownership of it in the USA. While ByteDance still retains a 19.9% stake in the business, conspiracy theorists think there have been some noticeable changes that have been passed off as a 'major infrastructure issue' caused by a power outage at a US data center.

The outlet says that Terms of Service had to be changed to comply with the likes of national security demands and California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Although it notes that these aren't technically 'new' things in terms of what TikTok is doing, there are some 'significant' alterations.

Noting three changes as either a compliance shift or completely new, Tom's Guide first talks about the collection of sensitive identity data. While it was largely suspected that your FYP was cultivated based on certain information, the Terms of Service reiterate that TikTok can collect data on everything from your gender identity to your medical diagnoses. Meta collects similar data, although TikTok takes it one step further by mentioning 'immigration status'.

Another compliance change appears to be pre-upload content scanning.

As far back as May 2025, terms informed users that TikTok was within its rights to scan user-generated content. Basically, even if you decide not to upload a video, it could still be analyzed by the TikTok overlords.

This was designed to flag privacy violations before they happened and pre-tag user interests, although some are unhappy about seeing it in black and white.

Finally, it appears there's a new introduction of precise geolocation. Perhaps the most alarming, the previous mention of 'approximate' location has been swapped for 'precise'. It's important to note that some social media platforms have been doing this for a while, and that you can also opt out on TikTok.

Calling out the revamped Terms of Service, one person complained: "It's a data collection app disguised as social media."

In general, others are concerned about how TikTok can supposedly use your likeness. Another raged: "Imagine seeing your own face in a TikTok ad for a product you hate, three years after you deleted the app, and realizing you signed away the rights to your own face in a 50 page TOS nobody read. That's some Black Mirror stuff."

Over on Reddit, someone made a plea saying: "Please delete these apps, people. Your lives will not fall apart if you do."

Another concluded: "I deleted my account today this was a wake-up call if anything bc its not normal for ppl to scroll through hundreds of short-form videos/ads every single day."