TikTok is facing a regulatory squeeze on two continents simultaneously, and the combined pressure is rewriting the rules for more than a billion users. A new U.S. entity structure has triggered updated terms of service that describe broader data use and reshape targeted advertising, while the European Commission has preliminarily found the app’s core design features in breach of the Digital Services Act. Together, these shifts help explain why some users say they may quit the platform in 2026, even as regulators frame the changes as efforts to reduce online harms and increase accountability.
New U.S. Entity Brings Broader Data and Ad Terms
The restructuring of TikTok’s American operations set the stage for the rule changes now alarming users. The company finalized a U.S. spinoff through a joint venture, creating a new governance framework that separated the American product from its Chinese parent company’s direct control. That corporate overhaul came with fine print. On January 23, 2026, TikTok pushed updated Terms and Conditions to every U.S. user, and a pop-up message informed them that the way targeted advertising works had changed, including how activity on other apps and websites could be used to refine the ads they see on the platform.
The advertising update is not the only shift users noticed. Previously, TikTok collected only approximate location data based on IP addresses, which is generally accurate at the city level, but the new terms open the door to broader data use and more precise tracking. The joint venture’s privacy language and enforcement posture could continue to evolve throughout 2026, leaving many unsure where their information will ultimately flow. For users who assumed the spinoff would limit data practices, the updated terms have had the opposite effect in perception: the new corporate setup is paired with language that allows broader use of data for ad targeting, and users who decline the updated terms may lose access to the app.
Europe Targets Infinite Scroll and Autoplay
While American users absorbed new advertising terms, European regulators delivered a more direct challenge to the app’s fundamental design. The European Commission preliminarily found that TikTok’s addictive design breaches the Digital Services Act, the bloc’s flagship online-safety law for large platforms. The Commission specifically identified four features it considers harmful: infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and the highly personalized recommender system that keeps users locked in content loops. The preliminary ruling focused on harm to children, arguing that these design choices exploit developing attention spans and encourage excessive use, without adequate age-appropriate safeguards or default protections.
If the finding is confirmed, TikTok faces fines and mandatory changes to the European version of the app. Regulators have suggested concrete remedies including disabling infinite scroll over time, introducing screen time breaks, and altering the recommender system so it does not optimize purely for engagement. These are not minor tweaks. Infinite scroll and autoplay are the engine of TikTok’s user experience, and the algorithmic feed is what made the service feel uniquely tailored and compulsive. Removing or restricting them would make the European app feel like a fundamentally different product, which is precisely the point regulators are making: the current design, they argue, is built to addict rather than to inform or entertain within healthy limits.
Ad Transparency Commitments Add Another Layer
Separately from the addictive-design case, TikTok has already made binding commitments to the Commission on advertising transparency under the DSA. Those commitments require the company to maintain a public ad repository with targeting details and update timelines so researchers and regulators can audit who is being shown what and why. The DSA itself establishes broader platform obligations including limits on profiling minors, bans on manipulative interfaces, and user rights such as explanations of why specific content or ads are recommended, according to the Commission’s official guidance. For TikTok, this means treating advertising not just as a revenue stream but as a regulated activity whose mechanics must be documented and, in some cases, curtailed.
For creators and advertisers, these layered requirements mean the targeting tools they rely on will become less opaque but also more constrained. Brands that built campaigns around TikTok’s granular behavioral targeting may find their reach narrowed in Europe, while creators who depend on the algorithm to surface their content to new audiences could see slower growth if the recommender system is recalibrated away from pure engagement. At the same time, greater transparency could make it easier for watchdogs to spot discriminatory targeting or undisclosed political messaging, which has been a persistent concern around short-form video platforms. The advertising commitments and the addictive-design case are legally separate proceedings, but their combined effect is a platform that will operate under tighter guardrails than any major social app has faced before in the EU.
Why Users Are Threatening to Leave
The user backlash is driven by a straightforward fear: TikTok in 2026 will feel less fun and more surveilled. On the American side, broader data collection and new ad-targeting language arrived without a clear opt-out, and the new American entity structure has not calmed privacy concerns so much as redirected them toward unfamiliar corporate partners. Many users say they accepted TikTok’s quirks because the app felt uniquely entertaining; now they worry that the price of admission is a deeper dossier on their habits, interests, and movements. On the European side, the prospect of losing infinite scroll, autoplay, and a finely tuned recommendation feed strikes at what made TikTok addictive in the first place, which is exactly the quality regulators want to curb. Users who joined the platform for its frictionless, endless content stream are being told that friction is coming by design, in the form of prompts to take breaks and feeds that may feel less hypnotic.
The threats to quit echo a pattern seen whenever a dominant platform changes its terms or core features, from privacy-policy overhauls to chronological-feed battles on other social networks. Some creators are already posting migration videos pointing followers to alternative apps in case TikTok becomes less viable for growth or monetization under the new rules. Others are taking a wait-and-see approach, skeptical that regulators or corporate lawyers will truly reshape the product that has become central to youth culture and online discovery. Whether the exodus materializes or not, the convergence of U.S. data rules and European design mandates marks a turning point: TikTok is no longer just a viral video app, but a test case for how governments can force global platforms to balance engagement with safety, and convenience with control over personal data.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
