TikTok’s parent launched a web scraper that’s gobbling up the world’s online data 25-times faster than OpenAI - eviltoast
  • zod000@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    3 hours ago

    We’ve had this thing hammering our servers. The scraper uses randomized user-agents browser/OS combinations and comes from a number of distinct IP ranges in different datacenters around the world, but all the IPs track back to Bytedance.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 hour ago

      Wouldn’t be surprised if they’re just cashing out while TikTok is still public in the US. One last desperate grab at value-add for the parent company before the shut down.

      Also a great way to burn the infrastructure for subsequent use. After this, you can guarantee every data security company is going to add the TikTok servers to their firewalls and blacklists. So the American company that tries to harvest the property is going to be tripping over these legacy bullwarks for years after.