For sale: An iPhone with TikTok installed, $50,000
Getty ImagesFollowing a TikTok ban in the US, phones and iPads with the TikTok app preinstalled are up for sale, and it seems some people are buying. Experts say it's a security disaster waiting to happen.
It may not seem like it, but TikTok is indeed banned in the United States. A law that bars the app went into effect on 19 January, causing it to brielfy go dark in the US before President Donald Trump issued an executive order granting TikTok a 75-day extension.
But Trump's order doesn't actually overturn the ban. Instead, it tells the US attorney general not to enforce the law for now. And that has meant that some key organisations are still being cautious – including the app stores that allow users to download it in the first place. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act makes it illegal for app stores and internet hosting services to enable the distribution, maintenance or updates of TikTok.
And so far, Apple and Google are complying. In other words, you can still use TikTok if you already have it downloaded on your device. If not, you're out of luck.
But this has led to some people seeing an opportunity. Across the US, people on online marketplaces such as eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Esty and elsewhere are listing used phones with the TikTok app preinstalled – often for astronomical prices. In some cases they are asking for sums more in line with what you'd pay for a new car. You can pick one up for yourself, if you've got the money. The only question is how much of your digital security you're willing to risk.
Some see an opportunity to cash in. One eBay seller, who spoke to the BBC on the condition of anonymity, has a Samsung Galaxy Note9 up for grabs. It's an older model that would normally expect to sell for around $250 (about £200). But with the TikTok app installed, the seller is asking for $50,000 (£40,145). The price is negotiable though. "The lowest I'll go is $15,000," the seller says. So far, they haven't seen any bids.
On TikTok, a number of American users have posted videos encouraging others to try and sell old devices with the app installed, promising big pay days. A Facebook Marketplace seller in New York says the videos inspired him. "I don't know whether the app is really getting banned, but I'm going to try to get something from it," the seller says. His admittedly ancient iPhone is also marked at $50,000. "I did it to see if I get lucky," he says.
Do a simple search on an online marketplace and it is possible to find countless other iPhones, iPads and Android devices with TikTok on them for sale at similar prices. It seems unlikely anyone is going to shell out five figures, but many have sold for more reasonable sums already, at least according to a search of completed items on ebay. But in most cases, phones with TikTok installed aren't fetching any more than their usual price, few hundred to just over $1,000, depending on the model. It is also worth remembering that completed listings shouldn't always be taken at face value. But they can give you an idea of where the market has landed.
The listings make for an amusing anecdote, but there are real consequences at stake, according to Ryan McGrady, a computer scientist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in the US.
"You might think 'this is just an app,' but people become attached to online services and act out of desperation when they suddenly get taken away," McGrady says. And where there's desperation, you're sure to find criminals taking advantage. "You just have to go back to the lesson of Flappy Bird," he says.
Flappy Bird was a mobile game where users controlled a bird as it tried to fly between green pipes without hitting them. In 2013, Flappy Bird became such a sensation that the developer Dong Nguyen was reportedly making $50,000 (£30,467) a day, until, out of nowhere, he pulled the game from the app store. At the time, Nguyen said he couldn't handle the stress of managing an "addictive product".
Almost immediately, scammers pounced. Phones with Flappy Bird installed flooded the market, as did copy-cat apps that promised to restore the lost game. The problem was many came loaded with viruses and malware. Some apps took control of the phone's text messages and started texting premium phone numbers, racking up charges on people's phone bills.
"It's a bad actor's dream to sell someone a phone that you know they're going to use all day without wiping it first. There could be anything loaded on these devices," McGrady says. "If people were willing to take risks for Flappy Bird, you can bet they will cut the same corners to reconnect with people on TikTok."
Forlorn TikTok refugees are also sure to encounter instructions online for VPNs, jailbreaking techniques and other promised roads to bring back the app. It would be simple to steer unsuspecting users into a digital trap, McGrady says.
It's an unfortunately predictable outcome, particularly considering what the law banning TikTok was designed to do in the first place, he says.
The US government's concerns about TikTok centred around its Chinese ownership. Specifically, lawmakers warn that China might use the app to harvest data, or influence the content users are seeing.
More like this:
• The ghosts of India's TikTok: What happens when a social media app is banned
• How America's porn wars could change your internet
• What dies with TikTok? As a ban looms, Americans face a cultural void
The laws governing what companies can do with personal data in the US are a cluttered patchwork of rules. Unlike Europe, there is no comprehensive privacy law in the US. By the same token, lawmakers across the world haven't shown any real movement towards meaningful laws about algorithmic transparency, which could assuage fears about the content users are being served.
In TikTok's case, the potential issues haunting people who are looking to skirt around the ban may be short lived. On Monday, President Trump said Microsoft was in talks to make a deal with TikTok that would save the app, and many other buyers are reportedly on the line as well. In the meantime, though, you may want to think twice before you take out a loan for that $50,000 iPhone.
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