TikTok in the US is no longer using Chinese parent company ByteDance’s content delivery network (CDN) following its temporary shutdown over the weekend.
Network observability firm Kentik noted that, when the site returned on Sunday following a 14-hour outage, all traffic was being routed via third party CDNs only. This could be a move to avoid sanctions under a new law which is set to ban the app from the US.
Video-sharing site TikTok went dark for American users on Saturday after the US Supreme Court rejected its appeal against the law, which will force ByteDance to divest TikTok US to a local owner, or shut the platform down permanently.
The law, passed by outgoing President Joe Biden, is designed to protect US national security against Chinese interests. New President Donald Trump has vowed to “save” TikTok and has said he will work with ByteDance to find a solution.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order delaying the implementation of the new law by 75 days, giving TikTok ten weeks to find a buyer.
TikTok no longer using the ByteDance CDN
CDNs help manage traffic on data-heavy platforms such as TikTok, ensuring that pages load swiftly.
Kentik’s analysis shows that, prior to the shutdown, most TikTok traffic used ByteDance’s own CDN. Since it returned, all users have been routed via third-party CDNs provided by vendors such as Akamai and Fastly.
Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis at Kentik, said in a blog post: “The loss of ByteDance’s US CDN as a source of TikTok traffic may simply be another measure of precaution taken by TikTok to avoid incurring the penalties from the ban.
“Several TikTok users have reported that the service behaves differently following the restoration. While it is hard to empirically measure the behavior of its algorithm, it is definitely the case that the service is hosted differently.”
The issue of where data is hosted is at the heart of the proposed TikTok ban. During his previous spell as president, Trump attempted to get ByteDance to sell the app to Oracle and Walmart, a deal which would have seen data from TikTok’s US users hosted on American servers.
Even though the deal fell apart, TikTok ended up turning to Oracle to host all of its US data.
Oracle has been mooted as a potential bidder this time around. Businessman Frank McCourt is also said to be interested, heading up a consortium named “The People’s Bid for TikTok” which includes Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary. YouTuber MrBeast is also part of a group looking to take over the platform.
ByteDance plans $12bn AI chip splurge
Away from the US, ByteDance is set to bolster its AI infrastructure by spending $12 billion on hardware in 2025.
Just under half the spending, some $5.5 billion, will come in China, with the rest focused on other markets, according to a report in the FT which cites two people familiar with the company’s thinking.
ByteDance intends to buy most of the chips for its Chinese data centers from local suppliers such as Huawei and Cambricon, the report said, though it will also purchase cut-down versions of Nvidia chips which are sold in the Chinese market to comply with US export controls. Nvidia and other vendors are banned from selling their top-of-the-range products in China.
In China, ByteDance operates its own data centers, as well as running servers in third party facilities. Earlier this month, it was reported that it plans to spend $614 million developing a new data center in Datong, Shanxi Province.
Elsewhere, the company will build out its AI infrastructure to try and reduce its dependence on TikTok, which could face regulatory issues in other markets following the US banning law. It had previously been reported that ByteDance would spend $7 billion to access Nvidia chips outside of China throughout 2025.