The fall and rise of TikTok (traffic)

Cloudflare Radar data shows the U.S. TikTok ban on January 19, 2025 triggered an immediate 85% drop in DNS traffic to TikTok/ByteDance domains and up to a 95% decline from ByteDance’s AS396986, with partial restoration after ~14 hours and steady recovery through the January 20 inauguration; however, ByteDance-origin traffic to Cloudflare stayed ~80% below pre-shutdown levels, implying alternative routing or solutions. Simultaneously, DNS queries for TikTok alternatives—led by RedNote (Xiaohongshu)—spiked sharply in the U.S. (peaking at +291% daily) and internationally (e.g., Mexico, Brazil, France), then tapered as TikTok service resumed.