TikTok customers within the US are migrating to a Chinese language app known as RedNote with the specter of a ban simply days away.
The transfer by customers who name themselves “TikTok refugees” has made RedNote essentially the most downloaded app on Apple’s US App Retailer on Monday.
RedNote is a TikTok competitor fashionable with younger folks in China, Taiwan and different Mandarin-speaking populations.
It has about 300 million month-to-month customers and appears like a mix of TikTok and Instagram. It permits customers, principally younger city girls, to alternate way of life ideas from courting to vogue.
Supreme Court docket justices are attributable to rule on a regulation that set a 19 January deadline for TikTok to both promote its US operations or face a ban within the nation.
TikTok has repeatedly stated that it’s going to not promote its US enterprise and its legal professionals have warned {that a} ban will violate free speech protections for the platform’s 170 million customers within the US.
In the meantime, RedNote has welcomed its new customers with open arms. There are 63,000 posts on the subject “TikTok refugee”, the place new customers are taught learn how to navigate the app and learn how to use primary Chinese language phrases.
“To our Chinese language hosts, thanks for having us – sorry prematurely for the chaos,” a brand new US consumer wrote.
However like TikTok, there have additionally been studies of censorship on RedNote on the subject of criticism of the Chinese language authorities.
In Taiwan, public officers are restricted from utilizing RedNote attributable to alleged safety dangers of Chinese language software program.
As extra US customers joined RedNote, some Chinese language customers have additionally jokingly referred to themselves as “Chinese language spies”, a reference to US officers’ issues that TikTok could possibly be utilized by China as a device for spying and political manipulation.
RedNote’s Chinese language title, Xiaohongshu, interprets to Little Pink E-book, however the app says it’s not a reference to Chinese language communist chief Mao Zedong’s e book of quotations with the identical title.
However safety issues haven’t deterred customers from flocking to RedNote.
Sarah Fotheringham, a 37-year-old faculty canteen employee in Utah, says the transfer to RedNote is a solution to “snub” the federal government.
“I am only a easy particular person dwelling a easy life,” Ms Fotheringham instructed the BBC in a RedNote message.
“I haven’t got something that China would not, and if they need my knowledge that dangerous they’ll have it.”
Marcus Robinson, a clothier in Virginia, stated he created his RedNote account over the weekend to share his clothes model and “be forward of the curve”.
Mr Robinson instructed the BBC he was was solely “barely hesitant” about accepting the phrases and situations of utilizing the app, which have been written in Mandarin.
“I wasn’t in a position to truly learn them in order that was somewhat regarding to me,” he stated, “however I took my likelihood.”
Whereas a ban won’t make TikTok disappear instantly, it should require app shops to cease providing it – which may kill it over time.
However even when TikTok dodges a ban, it might show helpless towards customers transferring to various platforms.
Some social media customers inform the BBC that they discover themselves scrolling on RedNote greater than TikTok.
“Even when TikTok does keep I’ll proceed to make use of my platform I’ve created on RedNote,” Tennessee tech employee Sydney Crawley instructed the BBC.
Ms Crawley stated she obtained over 6,000 followers inside 24 hours of making her RedNote account.
“I’ll proceed to attempt to construct a following there and see what new connections, friendships, or alternatives it brings me.”
Ms Fotheringham, the canteen employee, stated RedNote “opened my world as much as China and its folks”.
“I’m now in a position to see issues I by no means would have seen,” she stated. “Common Chinese language folks, discovering out about their tradition, life, faculty, every thing, it has been a lot enjoyable.”
The neighborhood up to now has been “tremendous welcoming”, stated Mr Robinson, the designer.
“I like RedNote up to now … I simply must discover ways to communicate Mandarin!”
