diff --git a/cmake/modules/jq.cmake b/cmake/modules/jq.cmake
deleted file mode 100644
index 4ce07aa0a5..0000000000
--- a/cmake/modules/jq.cmake
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,87 +0,0 @@
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
-#
-# Copyright (C) 2023 The Falco Authors.
-#
-# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
-# the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
-#
-# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an
-# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the
-# specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
-#
-
-option(USE_BUNDLED_JQ "Enable building of the bundled jq" ${USE_BUNDLED_DEPS})
-
-if(JQ_INCLUDE)
-	# we already have jq
-elseif(NOT USE_BUNDLED_JQ)
-	find_path(JQ_INCLUDE jq.h PATH_SUFFIXES jq)
-	find_library(JQ_LIB NAMES jq)
-	if(JQ_INCLUDE AND JQ_LIB)
-		message(STATUS "Found jq: include: ${JQ_INCLUDE}, lib: ${JQ_LIB}")
-	else()
-		message(FATAL_ERROR "Couldn't find system jq")
-	endif()
-else()
-	set(JQ_SRC "${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/jq-prefix/src/jq")
-	message(STATUS "Using bundled jq in '${JQ_SRC}'")
-	set(JQ_INCLUDE "${JQ_SRC}/target/include/")
-	set(JQ_INSTALL_DIR "${JQ_SRC}/target")
-	if(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS)
-		set(JQ_LIB_SUFFIX ${CMAKE_SHARED_LIBRARY_SUFFIX})
-		set(JQ_STATIC_OPTION --enable-shared --disable-static)
-	else()
-		set(JQ_LIB_SUFFIX ${CMAKE_STATIC_LIBRARY_SUFFIX})
-		set(JQ_STATIC_OPTION --enable-all-static)
-	endif()
-	set(JQ_LIB "${JQ_INSTALL_DIR}/lib/libjq${JQ_LIB_SUFFIX}")
-	set(ONIGURUMA_LIB "${JQ_INSTALL_DIR}/lib/libonig${JQ_LIB_SUFFIX}")
-
-	if(APPLE)
-		set(CPPFLAGS -D_REENTRANT)
-	endif()
-
-	if(NOT TARGET jq)
-		message(STATUS "Bundled jq: include: ${JQ_INCLUDE}, lib: ${JQ_LIB}")
-
-		# Why we mirror jq here?
-		#
-		# In their readme, jq claims that you don't have
-		# to do autoreconf -fi when downloading a released tarball.
-		#
-		# However, they forgot to push the released makefiles
-		# into their release tarbal.
-		#
-		# For this reason, we have to mirror their release after
-		# doing the configuration ourselves.
-		#
-		# This is needed because many distros do not ship the right
-		# version of autoreconf, making virtually impossible to build libs on them.
-		# Read more about it here:
-		#   https://github.com/stedolan/jq/issues/2061#issuecomment-593445920
-		ExternalProject_Add(
-			jq
-			PREFIX "${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/jq-prefix"
-			URL "https://download.falco.org/dependencies/jq-1.6.tar.gz"
-			URL_HASH "SHA256=787518068c35e244334cc79b8e56b60dbab352dff175b7f04a94f662b540bfd9"
-			CONFIGURE_COMMAND CPPFLAGS=${CPPFLAGS} ./configure --disable-maintainer-mode ${JQ_STATIC_OPTION} --disable-dependency-tracking --with-oniguruma=builtin --prefix=${JQ_INSTALL_DIR}
-			BUILD_COMMAND make clean all LDFLAGS=${JQ_LDFLAGS}
-			BUILD_IN_SOURCE 1
-			BUILD_BYPRODUCTS ${JQ_LIB} ${ONIGURUMA_LIB}
-			INSTALL_COMMAND make install)
-		install(FILES "${JQ_LIB}" DESTINATION "${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}/${LIBS_PACKAGE_NAME}"
-				COMPONENT "libs-deps")
-		install(FILES "${ONIGURUMA_LIB}" DESTINATION "${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}/${LIBS_PACKAGE_NAME}"
-				COMPONENT "libs-deps")
-		install(DIRECTORY "${JQ_INCLUDE}" DESTINATION "${CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}/${LIBS_PACKAGE_NAME}"
-				COMPONENT "libs-deps")
-	endif()
-endif()
-
-if(NOT TARGET jq)
-	add_custom_target(jq)
-endif()
-
-include_directories("${JQ_INCLUDE}")
diff --git a/cmake/modules/libsinsp.cmake b/cmake/modules/libsinsp.cmake
index 48fcff7560..d5499fe8ff 100644
--- a/cmake/modules/libsinsp.cmake
+++ b/cmake/modules/libsinsp.cmake
@@ -34,7 +34,6 @@ if (NOT EMSCRIPTEN)
 endif()
 if(NOT WIN32 AND NOT APPLE)
 	include(b64)
-	include(jq)
 endif()
 if(NOT WIN32 AND NOT APPLE AND NOT MINIMAL_BUILD AND NOT EMSCRIPTEN)
 	include(cares)
@@ -72,8 +71,6 @@ endif()
 if(NOT WIN32 AND NOT APPLE)
 	get_filename_component(B64_ABSOLUTE_INCLUDE_DIR ${B64_INCLUDE} ABSOLUTE)
 	list(APPEND LIBSINSP_INCLUDE_DIRS ${B64_ABSOLUTE_INCLUDE_DIR})
-	get_filename_component(JQ_ABSOLUTE_INCLUDE_DIR ${JQ_INCLUDE} ABSOLUTE)
-	list(APPEND LIBSINSP_INCLUDE_DIRS ${JQ_ABSOLUTE_INCLUDE_DIR})
 endif()
 
 if(NOT WIN32 AND NOT APPLE AND NOT MINIMAL_BUILD AND NOT EMSCRIPTEN)
diff --git a/test/vm/containers/ubuntu2004.Dockerfile b/test/vm/containers/ubuntu2004.Dockerfile
index 9e5310594e..8c66c293a7 100755
--- a/test/vm/containers/ubuntu2004.Dockerfile
+++ b/test/vm/containers/ubuntu2004.Dockerfile
@@ -34,7 +34,6 @@ RUN apt --fix-broken -y install && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
     libc-ares-dev \
     libprotobuf-dev \
     protobuf-compiler \
-    libjq-dev \
     libgrpc++-dev \
     protobuf-compiler-grpc \
     libcurl4-openssl-dev \
diff --git a/test/vm/containers/ubuntu2204.Dockerfile b/test/vm/containers/ubuntu2204.Dockerfile
index ff08fc3936..f20436d2c0 100755
--- a/test/vm/containers/ubuntu2204.Dockerfile
+++ b/test/vm/containers/ubuntu2204.Dockerfile
@@ -35,7 +35,6 @@ RUN apt --fix-broken -y install && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
     libc-ares-dev \
     libprotobuf-dev \
     protobuf-compiler \
-    libjq-dev \
     libgrpc++-dev \
     protobuf-compiler-grpc \
     libcurl4-openssl-dev \
diff --git a/test/vm/containers/ubuntu2310.Dockerfile b/test/vm/containers/ubuntu2310.Dockerfile
index 64e314091d..d5605bb23a 100644
--- a/test/vm/containers/ubuntu2310.Dockerfile
+++ b/test/vm/containers/ubuntu2310.Dockerfile
@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@ RUN apt --fix-broken -y install && apt-get install -y \
     libc-ares-dev \
     libprotobuf-dev \
     protobuf-compiler \
-    libjq-dev \
     libgrpc++-dev \
     protobuf-compiler-grpc \
     libcurl4-openssl-dev \
diff --git a/userspace/libsinsp/CMakeLists.txt b/userspace/libsinsp/CMakeLists.txt
index f73b2ce593..1308a9f48e 100644
--- a/userspace/libsinsp/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/userspace/libsinsp/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -66,7 +66,6 @@ if(NOT WIN32 AND NOT APPLE )
 		include(protobuf)
 		include(openssl)
 	endif() # NOT MINIMAL_BUILD
-	include(jq)
 	include_directories("${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}")
 endif()
 
@@ -268,7 +267,7 @@ if(NOT WIN32)
 						"${GPR_LIB}"
 						"${PROTOBUF_LIB}"
 						"${CARES_LIB}"
-						"${JQ_LIB}")
+			)
 			list(APPEND SINSP_PKGCONFIG_LIBRARIES
 						"${GRPC_LIBRARIES}"
 						"${GRPCPP_LIB}"
@@ -276,7 +275,7 @@ if(NOT WIN32)
 						"${GPR_LIB}"
 						"${PROTOBUF_LIB}"
 						"${CARES_LIB}"
-						"${JQ_LIB}")
+			)
 
 			if(NOT MUSL_OPTIMIZED_BUILD)
 				target_link_libraries(sinsp INTERFACE rt anl)
@@ -284,16 +283,9 @@ if(NOT WIN32)
 			endif()
 
 		else()
-			target_link_libraries(sinsp INTERFACE "${JQ_LIB}" rt)
-			list(APPEND SINSP_PKGCONFIG_LIBRARIES "${JQ_LIB}" rt)
+			target_link_libraries(sinsp INTERFACE rt)
+			list(APPEND SINSP_PKGCONFIG_LIBRARIES rt)
 		endif() # NOT MINIMAL_BUILD
-		# when JQ is compiled statically, it will
-		# also compile a static object for oniguruma we need to link
-		if(ONIGURUMA_LIB)
-			target_link_libraries(sinsp INTERFACE "${ONIGURUMA_LIB}")
-			list(APPEND SINSP_PKGCONFIG_LIBRARIES "${ONIGURUMA_LIB}")
-			add_dependencies(sinsp jq)
-		endif()
 	endif() # NOT APPLE
 
 	target_link_libraries(sinsp INTERFACE "${OPENSSL_LIBRARIES}")