No, TikTok not giving away free data to commemorate anniversary
A message spread on Facebook and WhatsApp, where it was forwarded to Africa Check for verification, claims that social media company TikTok is offering users free mobile data bundles as part of a promotional event.
A typical post begins: “Congratulations to all TikTokers, Free 30GB (All Networks) valid for 60 days in Celebration of TikTok 6th Anniversary.”
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But these messages and the pages they link to are not associated with TikTok and appear to be part of a moneymaking scam.
Here are the red flags that give the game away.
TikTok already turned 6, isn’t hosting giveaway through shady links
Perhaps the biggest giveaway that this is a scam is the fact that, at time of publication, TikTok is at least eight years old. Chinese social media site Douyin was originally launched in 2016, and TikTok was launched as an international version in September 2017. In early 2018, TikTok’s parent company bought a pre-existing app named Musical.ly and incorporated it into TikTok.
Even taking the incorporation of Musical.ly as the “founding” of TikTok, the site would be at least eight years old as of the “giveaway” messages circulating in June 2026.
There are also some less obvious red flags.
The messages claim that TikTok users can claim the free giveaways via a link that includes the domain “get.free-data.today”. TikTok uses the domain TikTok.com, and there is no evidence that the company owns “free-data.today” or any of its variants.
The links also behave suspiciously. On mobile devices, they lead to pages that feature counters, supposedly showing the number of people who have redeemed a giveaway, and comments supporting the giveaway claims. But there are no details to prove that these numbers or comments are real.
The sites also claim that visitors must enter personal details, such as a phone number, and share the page with others in order to receive a reward. This is a common tactic of scams like this, which encourage victims to spread the scam further.
On desktop browsers, the links simply redirect to other pages like online storefronts. Some of these may be legitimate pages which pay affiliate marketing commissions to the scam sites for each visitor sent to a page in this way.
The get.free-data.today sites use security features called transport layer certificates, which are also used by a number of related pages. Many of these pages also feature fake “data” giveaways, and none are associated with TikTok.
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Companies hosting giveaways typically do so through their own websites, apps and official accounts. Shady links with no verifiable connection to major sites like TikTok should not be trusted.