On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled against TikTok, upholding a law that would ban the social media platform in the U.S. as of Sunday, Jan. 19. The Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok, challenged the law, citing the First Amendment. However, according to a breaking story in The New York Times, the Court's ruling was two-fold: "preventing China from covertly manipulating content on the platform, and preventing China from collecting vast amounts of data about the 170 million Americans who use TikTok."
The news is still fresh, and many are wondering if and how President-elect Donald Trump may reverse the ban. But in the meantime, some social media users are already making a move over to another Chinese app called Xiaohongshu, or RedNote. Read up about the buzzy social media app here.
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What is RedNote?
Xiaohongshu, which translates to “little red book” in English, is owned by a private Shanghai-based company called Xingyin Information Technology, as reported by The Washington Post. It was created in 2013, but as of July 2024, RedNote was averaging 300 million monthly active users, per the South China Morning Post.
Similar to TikTok, RedNote runs on short videos and text posts, ranging from topics like beauty and food to pop culture trends. It’s also worth noting that Xiaohongshu was designed for and is predominantly used by Chinese-speaking users, meaning videos and text are in Mandarin.
Now with an influx of American users, RedNote has become inundated with original TikTok dances and memes. Furthermore, English speakers are now asking their Chinese peers to teach them Mandarin via the app—and it appears they’re happy to oblige.
Some say RedNote can unite young adults on a global scale.
There are advantages to downloading RedNote in addition to being a substitute for TikTok.
“In an instant, someone may discover a business opportunity, meet a like-minded person, or even suddenly post a year later that he married an American he met on Xiaohongshu,” suggested one Chinese user, according to The Washington Post.
Despite the current state of privacy wars, TikToker-turned-RedNote user Manimatana Lee is finding joy in expanding her following on another app. “I don’t really care if I’m using a Chinese app at all,” said Lee, as reported by The New York Times. “It’s like a place for me to escape reality. And if it’s making me feel good, I’m here for it.”
In a viral video, TikToker Krystan Walmsley encouraged her followers to download RedNote, emphasizing that the “developers are working overtime right now to get the whole app translated for us [English-speaking users.]”
“This app is so cute and it’s a lot of fun so far,” she said.
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However, others are skeptical about the app.
Marketer Olivia Wang, a 26-year-old from Beijing, argues that RedNote is being used as a pawn by Americans in the fight against free speech. “Many people are joining RedNote as an act of defiance or to challenge the U.S. government, but how many of them genuinely want to engage with Chinese users or learn about Chinese culture?” she pondered, per The Washington Post.
Making Xiaohongshu user-friendly for non-Mandarian-speaking folks is the app’s “baseline for survival,” she added.
But as TechRadar journalist Lance Ulanoffwrote in an opinion piece, “While RedNote is obviously a workable solution for those who aren't ready to give up TikTok, it's also another Chinese app. Unlike TikTok, there's been no effort to Americanize the platform, and there's been no effort to protect our data from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has access to the data of any company operating within its borders.”
