TikTok ban unleashes new threats
It was a long and noisy day. Countless articles captured TikTok’s self-selection to “go dark” late Saturday night before being restored by mid-afternoon Sunday. In the meantime, we have confirmed that VPNs cannot bypass the ban and that US accounts cannot be accessed from anywhere. TikTok is not yet clear — this is a firebreak to allow the platform to find a suitor or an acceptable American partner, it is not a remission. And in the midst of this noisy day, alarming data was added, suggesting that the threat to iPhone and Android users is much worse than most users think.
The data comes from Cloud Flarewhose technologies sufficiently support Internet security services to be able to measure trends and changes on a large scale. Following TikTok taking its US platform offline, Cloudflare states that “our data showed a clear impact from 03:30 UTC (10:30 p.m. ET on January 18, 2025)” when TikTok went dark.
From that point on, Cloudflare says, DNS traffic to TikTok-related domains took a huge hit. “This includes DNS traffic not only for TikTok, but also for other ByteDance-owned platforms, such as video editor CapCut. Traffic fell by up to 85% compared to the previous week and showed signs of further decline in the following hours. The data also showed that “traffic from TikTok owner ByteDance’s (AS396986) network in the United States to Cloudflare saw a sharp decline, dropping as much as 95% after 03:30 UTC (10:30 p.m. ET).”
No surprises there, as much was expected given that 170 million US TikTok users were suddenly laid off. What’s more surprising is that “DNS traffic for TikTok alternatives, driven by RedNote, has increased in recent days, and not just in the United States.” It’s the network effect: when American users are forced to change, they create a global network. orient yourself.
Increased traffic to TikTok alternatives, including Chinese apps
When this trend goes viral, it becomes difficult to stop it. “Daily US DNS traffic for TikTok alternatives has increased since January 13, reaching 116% growth on January 15. [and] January 19 is on track to exceed this growth,” confirms Cloudflare. But the company also says that “other countries where we saw a clear increase in daily DNS traffic to TikTok alternatives were Mexico (a 500% increase on January 18), Canada (68% on January 18), United Kingdom (53% on January 18). 18), Germany (110% on January 18) and France (75% on January 18).
Cloudflare claims that “these trends are consistent with apps like RedNote rising to the top of the Android and iOS App Stores.” This followed the other trend making headlines as the TikTok ban became more real, with “Refugees TikTok» flocking to other Chinese apps. There have been some interesting social experiments – American and Chinese users chatting, for example, or posts suggesting users test what kind of Chinese political content might trigger a ban on other platforms. But the bigger problem is the fire pan aspect of it all: security and privacy.
TikTok poses a security and privacy risk, as do all social media platforms. And user data allegedly heading to China – as is still making news in Europe this week, despite TikTok’s denials – adds a bit of spice. But Chinese platforms that haven’t been cleaned up at all pose a much bigger threat to any iPhone and Android users who jump on them.
“I fear Americans are flocking to a number of adversary-owned social media platforms,” U.S. Sen. Mark Warner said on Bluesky. “We still need a comprehensive, risk-based approach to assessing and mitigating risks from foreign applications. » And whatever the reality, the lack of transparency and control is undeniably true.
Was this accelerated viral migration part of the thinking behind the brevity of TikTok’s shutdown, even though the platform didn’t really need to shut down and could have simply waited for the change in administration? We don’t know.
What we do know is that you shouldn’t install and use Chinese social media apps thinking that they are the obvious replacement for TikTok. This is not the case. These China-based apps don’t have the protections that even TikTok has added to its platform, and there isn’t the surveillance — again, real or exaggerated — that TikTok has been pushed to put in place. You need to be very careful before allowing apps on your phone and with the permissions you give them.
I expect the TikTok shutdown won’t happen again, all the ingredients are now in place for neat fudge. But whatever happens, remember that privacy and security threats are very real on your phone, whatever its flavor. And don’t take any of these opportunistic risks just because flocks of others are doing the same.
