How Do Terms of Service Influence Social Media User Dynamics from A Privacy Anxiety Perspective

TL;DR

This paper investigates how Terms of Service updates on social media platform X, which enable AI training on user content, trigger privacy anxiety that affects user engagement and migration intentions.

Contribution

It reveals how privacy anxiety spreads among users and impacts behavior following platform policy changes, highlighting governance challenges in AI-driven social media.

Findings

Privacy anxiety activates within creator communities.

User engagement declines as anxiety escalates.

Migration intentions increase with rising privacy concerns.

Abstract

This study examines how a Terms of Service update on X enabling default AI training on user content activated privacy anxiety and reshaped user behavior. Privacy anxiety is conceptualized as a structural outcome of reduced control over data use, particularly among content creators. The study finds that privacy anxiety is activated within creator communities and diffused across user groups through inter- and cross- community interaction. As anxiety escalated, engagement declined and migration intentions increased. These findings point to an unresolved dilemma in AI-driven platform governance: how user trust and autonomy can be sustained under conditions of concentrated power and data-dependent business models remains unclear.