TikTok videos show Chinese sellers offering anti-drone weapons and military tech with consumer-style marketing.
University of Maryland engineering professor Houbing Herbert Song, who has researched anti-drone technology, tells WIRED that the products featured in the TikTok videos appear to be a combination of detection equipment and jamming equipment, the latter of which distorts the signals drones use to operate.
Drones typically use radio waves to communicate with a remote operator. Some jammers work by transmitting radio waves at the same frequency the drone uses to operate, which can cause the drone to lose contact with its operator and render it nonresponsive. However, if the drone can still connect to a navigation system, like the Global Positioning System (GPS), some drones can land themselves or return to their starting point. Other jammers attempt to interfere with the GPS signals drones use to navigate, or “spoof” them, tricking the drone into thinking it’s somewhere else.