TikTok is experiencing a surge in user deletions following its announcement of a new U.S. joint venture. Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower reports that the daily average of U.S. users uninstalling the app has surged by nearly 150% over the past five days when compared to the preceding three months.
This spike in user departures comes after TikTok revealed its plan to establish a U.S.-based joint venture, aiming to ensure the continued operation of its video-sharing platform within the United States under new American leadership. Adam Presser, formerly TikTok’s head of operations, has been appointed CEO of this new entity.
The move to a joint venture has seemingly unsettled some users, particularly after they were prompted to accept an updated privacy policy. Social media discussions highlighted specific clauses within the new policy that detail the types of data TikTok may collect, including sensitive categories such as “racial or ethnic origin,” “sexual life or sexual orientation, status as transgender or nonbinary, citizenship or immigration status, or financial information.” However, an archived version of the privacy policy from August 2024 contains these same provisions, suggesting this is not a new development in the policy itself.
Despite the unchanged privacy policy language, the announcement of the joint venture appears to have negatively impacted user sentiment, directly contributing to the significant increase in app uninstalls.
Creators have expressed their disillusionment and concern. Dre Ronayne, who had amassed nearly 400,000 followers on TikTok, shared on Threads that she deleted her account, stating, “If I can delete my biggest platform because their terms of agreement and censorship have gotten out of control, so can you!”
Beyond the privacy concerns, other creators have reported technical difficulties with the app, including outages and failed video uploads. Nadya Okamoto, a TikTok creator with over 4 million followers, conveyed a sense of unease due to the lack of clear communication from the company regarding the joint venture’s implications for its creators. “That’s why there is so much paranoia, because we’re all kind of looking at this platform and we just don’t know what’s happening,” she said. Okamoto has personally experienced upload issues for approximately 24 hours and has diversified her content distribution to platforms like Instagram and YouTube during this period of uncertainty.
The company attributed recent service disruptions to a power outage at a U.S. data center, stating via an X account associated with the joint venture, “We’re working with our data center partner to stabilize our service. We’re sorry for this disruption and hope to resolve it soon.”
However, the surge in uninstalls has not yet significantly impacted TikTok’s overall active user base in the U.S., which has remained relatively stable week-over-week, according to Sensor Tower data.
Meanwhile, competing platforms have observed a notable increase in user interest. Sensor Tower data indicates that downloads for UpScrolled saw a more than tenfold increase compared to the previous week, while Skylight Social experienced a 919% rise, and Rednote, a Chinese-owned app, climbed 53% week-over-week.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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