TikTok Faces User Backlash After U S Ownership Shift

It’s been a whirlwind year for TikTok in the United States, and the drama hasn’t let up. After a tumultuous 2025 that saw the app briefly disappear from American phones, TikTok is once again at the center of controversy—this time over its new ownership, updated terms of service, and mounting user frustration. The latest chapter in the TikTok saga began in late January 2026, when the platform’s U.S. operations officially changed hands and a flurry of policy changes landed in users’ laps. The response? An uproar, with creators and everyday users alike voicing concerns, uninstalling the app in droves, and speculating about what’s really going on behind the scenes.

According to KTAL News, the story traces back to January 2025, when a federal law forced TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to either divest its U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban over national security fears. The app vanished briefly, with Apple and Google pulling it from their stores. Users logging in were greeted by a blunt message: “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”

Fast-forward to January 22, 2026, and TikTok has re-emerged under new management. The company inked a deal with a consortium of U.S.-based investors—including Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and the Emirati investment firm MGX—to form the TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. ByteDance’s stake is now strictly limited, and the new owners have promised a raft of safeguards. In a statement, the joint venture explained, “TikTok USDS Joint Venture’s mandate is to secure U.S. user data, apps, and the algorithm through comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity measures. It will safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem through robust trust and safety policies and content moderation while ensuring continuous accountability through transparency reporting and third-party certifications.”

But the transition hasn’t been smooth. As soon as the ink dried on the new ownership papers, TikTok rolled out sweeping changes to its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Users logging in—whether on their phones or computers—were greeted with a pop-up: “We’re updating our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (both as linked) effective January 22, 2026 to reflect changes including our updated corporate entity. By clicking below, you agree to these changes. If you are under 18, you also confirm that your parent or guardian has reviewed them with you and agreed to them.” The mobile version added a bulleted list of changes, including an updated corporate entity, new types of location information (including geolocation) that may be collected with permission, and expanded use of user data to serve ads both on and off TikTok.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this didn’t go over well. Users quickly took to social media to air their grievances. Some were alarmed by the more explicit mention of geotracking—TikTok now states it may collect precise GPS-level location data, with user permission. Others were frustrated by what they saw as censorship, claiming that videos critical of ICE or the Trump administration, especially those referencing ICE’s deployment in Minnesota, were being suppressed or blocked. Megan Statler, a comedian and TikTok creator, told KTAL she deleted her account after repeated failed attempts to upload anti-ICE videos. “After many multiple attempts to upload the videos with no success, I stopped trying and deleted my TikTok account completely,” she said.

TikTok, for its part, has denied any politically motivated censorship. In a statement to KTAL, the company insisted, “Our policies are publicly available, govern all of our content moderation decisions and have not changed. You can see that videos of the incident in Minnesota are available on the platform and have been since Saturday (January 24, 2026).” Instead, TikTok blamed recent glitches on a major power outage at one of its U.S. data center partners over the prior weekend. That explanation hasn’t satisfied everyone, and the timing of the technical issues—right as the new terms rolled out—has fueled speculation and conspiracy theories.

Other complaints have piled up, too. Users have reported difficulties uploading content, videos stuck at zero views, and timelines repeating themselves. Some allege that certain words, such as “Epstein,” are being censored, while others are uncomfortable with the app’s new data collection policies, particularly the inclusion of citizenship and immigration status as “sensitive personal information.” According to Scripps News, some users were surprised by these details, but a review of TikTok’s historical terms shows that most of these data collection practices were already in place as early as July 2024. What’s truly new is the expanded geolocation tracking, though TikTok says this feature can be disabled.

As the backlash has grown, so too has the exodus from the platform. Scripps News reports that market analysts have observed a 130% increase in TikTok uninstalls compared to typical months during the week of January 26-28, 2026. The drop in engagement hasn’t gone unnoticed by creators, who say their views and interactions have plummeted since the restructuring. Some speculate that the algorithm is suppressing politically sensitive content, though, again, TikTok attributes these issues to technical glitches from the power outage.

Amid the chaos, experts have tried to offer some perspective. Sarah Kreps, director of the Tech Policy Institute, told Scripps News, “As far as I can tell, [TikTok’s new terms of service] are totally aligned with what we see on other social media platforms. But I do think it raises—the whole reason why we need to have trust in what we’re using, because once there’s kind of an insinuation of doubt about ownership and conflicts of interest, those kinds of questions, then I think people will put two and two together and get three and attribute whatever changes they see to some sort of politically-motivated ideology, and I think we are in a very charged moment right now.”

Indeed, the context matters. TikTok’s new owners, all with close ties to American business and, in some cases, the Trump administration, have promised tighter data controls and algorithmic transparency. But with public trust in tech companies already at a low ebb—and political tensions running high—every policy tweak is scrutinized through a partisan lens. Some users see the new safeguards as a positive step, while others worry about surveillance, censorship, and the broader implications for free expression online.

For now, TikTok’s leadership is sticking to its message of compliance and transparency. The company says it will continue to update users as more information becomes available and maintains that its policies are in line with industry standards. But as the dust settles on this latest upheaval, one thing is clear: TikTok’s American adventure is far from over, and the battle for the hearts, minds, and data of its users will continue to play out in the months ahead.