TikTok uninstalls jump 2.5 times in US; why thousands are deleting the app

TikTok is witnessing a sudden spike in US users deleting the app. The video-sharing app uninstalls jumped nearly 150% within days of the company announcing a new joint venture to house its US operations.

According to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, the daily average of US users deleting the app has risen to about 2.5 times over the past five days compared with the average over the previous three months.

Creator Dre Ronayne, who had nearly 4 lakh followers on TikTok, told CNBC, "If I can delete my biggest platform because their terms of agreement and censorship have gotten out of control, so can you."

Why are people boycotting TikTok?

People are deletingTikTok over its new privacy policies. Last week, TikTok said it had formed a joint venture to keep the app running in the US under new American leadership to protect data and national security. Adam Presser, who was previously TikTok's head of operations, has been named CEO of the new US entity.

The announcement didn't sit well with most of the users; many said that they were forced to accept an updated privacy policy when using the app.

The updated privacy policy states that it will collect sensitive personal information such as a user's racial or ethnic origin, sexual life or sexual orientation, gender identity, citizenship, immigration status and financial information.

The update is raising alarms because of the fine print that allows the app to share even more data.

People

are deleting TikTok after a privacy policy update on January 22 raised new concerns about how much data the app can collect, and who gets access to it.

So what actually changed? Why are people deleting the app now? And how much of this is new, versus just newly noticed?… pic.twitter.com/T7OCQCVCF4

— TIME (@TIME) February 2, 2026

The US government has for years expressed concern that TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, could potentially use users' data for surveillance purposes. So, when TikTok announced that its US operations would be moved into a new joint venture, it rolled out an updated privacy policy.

However, many US citizens are now worried about similar issues after the app updated its privacy policy to collect sensitive personal information.

At the same time, ongoing federal immigration enforcement actions, including ICE raids and fatal shootings of civilians, in places like Minneapolis have worried citizens.

"We may also collect precise location data, depending on your settings and as explained below," the privacy policy reads.