17 January 2025

Getty Images A woman in a white sleeveless top stands in Times Square in New York City at dusk, looking at the smartphone in her hands.Getty Images

Thousands of TikTok users have moved to the popular Chinese social media app RedNote

An impending TikTok ban has connected Chinese and American citizens like never before, exchanging jokes and memes in what one user called a “historic moment.”

All of this is unfolding on a popular Chinese social media app called RedNote, or Xiaohongshu (literally translated as Little Red Book), which doesn't have the usual internet firewall separating China from the rest of the world.

The self-proclaimer has been drawn “TikTok refugees” in the United States They're looking for a new home online — despite the fact that their government is seeking to ban TikTok over national security concerns.

Americans now find themselves in direct contact with 300 million Chinese speakers in China and elsewhere — while in the real world, Beijing is bracing for a turbulent Trump presidency that could strain its fragile relations with Washington.

“We are here to spite our government.”

At the heart of the US ban is the fear that China is using TikTok to spy on Americans.

The app has faced accusations that user data ends up in the hands of the Chinese government – due to a Beijing law requiring local companies to “support, assist and cooperate with state intelligence work”. TikTok denies this ever happened, or that it will happen.

But that prospect doesn't seem to worry some users in the US, where 700,000 new users have signed in to RedNote in the past two days, making it the most downloaded free app in the US App Store.

“The reason our government told us they were banning TikTok was because they insisted it was owned by you guys, the Chinese people, the government, whatever,” said one recent RedNote user, Definitelynotchippy.

She goes on to explain why she's on RedNote: “A lot of us are smarter than that, so we decided to piss off our government and download an actual Chinese app. We call this trolling, so in short we're here to spite.” “Our government and getting to know China and hanging out with you guys.”

TikTok, although owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is headquartered in Singapore and says it is independently managed. In fact, the Chinese version of TikTok is another app called Douyin. RedNote, on the other hand, is a Chinese company based in Shanghai and is among the few social media apps available in China and abroad.

So Washington's concerns about TikTok will extend to RedNote as well.

This is why American users on RedNote refer to themselves as “Chinese spies” — a continuation of a TikTok trend where people have been saying goodbye to their “personal Chinese spy” who has allegedly been monitoring them over the years.

RedNote is now full of posts in which former TikTok users are looking for an alternative. One post reads: “I'm looking for a Chinese spy. I miss you. Please help me find him.”

And Chinese users replied: “I'm here!”

RedNote is a meme posted on RedNoterednote

TikTok users are mocking the US government over its concerns about the Chinese-owned app

“Exchanges between people”

The honest and funny conversations on RedNote may not be what Chinese President Xi Jinping had in mind when he talked about “promoting people-to-people cultural exchanges” between China and the United States.

But that's certainly what's happening as eager Chinese users welcome curious Americans to the app.

“You don't even need to go abroad, you can just talk to foreigners here,” one Chinese RedNote user said in a video that received more than 6,000 likes.

“But it's honestly crazy, no one expected that one day we would meet like this, and communicate so openly like this.”

Food, live shows and jobs were the most popular topics: “Is life in America similar to what it looks like on (US TV show) Friends?”

Other Chinese users demanded a “tax” on the use of the platform – pictures of cats.

“Cat tax from California,” one post read in response. “This is my show – the shorthair is a boy named Bob and the calico is a girl named Marley.”

RedNote An image of cats posted on RedNoterednote

One user in California paid a “cat tax” to stay on RedNote

Still others use the platform to ask Americans for help with their English homework.

One post read: “Dear TikTok refugees, can you tell me the answer to question 53? Is the answer T (true) or F (false)?”

Help came quickly: about 500 people have since responded.

RedNote Question uploaded by a RedNote userrednote

English lessons on RedNote

The influx of new American users seems to have caught RedNote by surprise — reports indicate the company is hiring English moderators.

Others are trying to cash in on RedNote's new-found American stardom, too: language-learning app Duolingo put out a graph showing a 216% jump in its user base, compared to this time last year.

Duolingo Chart DuolingoDuolingo

Is RedNote the new TikTok?

However, there can be no guarantee that RedNote's growing popularity will continue.

There's no reason to assume it won't face backlash for the same reasons TikTok did: fears it could be used by China to spy on Americans.

It is unclear how long Beijing will be open to such unrestricted exchanges, as control of the Internet is key to its repressive regime.

One Chinese user pointed out the irony of the situation, writing: “Don't we have a firewall? How can so many foreigners come in, when I clearly can't leave?”

Normally, Chinese netizens have not been able to directly interact with foreigners. Global platforms like Twitter and Instagram and search engines like Google are blocked in China, although people use VPNs to circumvent these restrictions. Sensitive topics – from history to dissent – or anything seen as critical of the Chinese government and the ruling Communist Party, are quickly censored.

It's not clear how censored RedNote is, as it is widely used by younger and middle-aged women in China, sharing photos and videos. It's not like Weibo, another Chinese app, where discussions and airing of grievances are much more common, often leading to posts being removed.

But a group of new RedNote users say they've already received reports that their posts violate the guidelines, including one person who asked in a post whether the app was “LGBT community-friendly.”

Another said they asked, “What do Chinese people think about gay people?” They received a similar notice that they had violated the “general ethical code” guidelines.

Chinese users continue to remind Americans through the app “not to mention sensitive topics, such as politics, religion and drugs.”

One Chinese user also advised them to adhere to the “One China Policy,” the diplomatic underpinning of the US-China relationship — under which the US recognizes and maintains official relations with China rather than Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own. Its own.

RedNote A user post on RedNote reminding US users about the app "Not to mention sensitive topics such as politics, religion and drugs".rednote

Sensitive topics such as references to Tiananmen and criticism of the government are widely banned across Chinese social media

The US government has not commented on RedNote yet, nor has Beijing.

But Chinese state media seems optimistic about this, with the Global Times interviewing an American user who said she “loves interacting with Chinese users.”

RedNote's fate in the US is anyone's guess, but for now, at least online, the rivalry between the US and China is taking a break. Thanks to the cat pictures.

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