An impending ban on TikTok has driven some users to try a new alternative. Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, has quickly become a favorite stand-in for the social video platform, with an estimated 170 million monthly users in the U.S.
The Chinese-language social media platform skyrocketed to the top of the Apple App Store and the No. 3 spot on Google’s Play Store on Monday, just under a week before a law passed last spring banning TikTok takes effect on Jan. 19.
The video-sharing platform boasts 300 million monthly active users, per the BBC, and has raised hundreds of millions in capital from Chinese investors. The app layout is similar to Pinterest, and contains features found on TikTok like livestreaming, direct messaging and e-commerce.
On RedNote, “tiktokrefugee” is a top trending term, with nearly 60,000 posts from users speaking English and Chinese. Users say they found the platform because they were disappointed with other TikTok rivals, including Elon Musk’s X and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, all of which have added short-form video content features in recent years.
“I joined because the options in the US are now limited to YouTube and Facebook/meta/Insta, and I want nothing to do with Zuckerberg!” Tristan Bouchard, a 32-year-old musician from Massachusetts told Salon in a direct message on the platform.
Another user likened joining to a protest over the ban on TikTok – an increasingly important hub for entertainment, political content and online shopping – telling Salon they joined “because the American government made a mistake banning TikTok.”
“It’s a violation of our free speech, so I went here where my speech will be heard,” the user said, wishing to remain anonymous but echoing similar concerns about Meta’s rival platforms.
The irony of ditching TikTok for a China-based replacement, days after government attorneys argued the app was a “powerful tool” for the Chinese government, is not lost on all users.
“If you are a national security official for the United States this morning, and you thought this whole story couldn’t get any crazier, like ‘I’ve been warning Americans to stay off of TikTok because it’s maybe Communist China’s attempt to surveil us,’ and instead of just getting off TikTok they just go straight to the source,” one user said in a TikTok video.
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RedNote could pose its own national security concerns, too. In 2022, Taiwan banned government officials from using the app alongside TikTok concluding that both apps “endanger national information security.” But these threats haven’t discouraged some U.S. users.
"I don't have anything that China doesn't, and if they want my data that bad they can have it,” one RedNote user from Utah told the BBC.
Bouchard echoed the statement, noting he was "not apprehensive about China having my data" compared to Meta or other companies.
But users may be able to stay on TikTok, at least for a short term. Though justices on the Supreme Court did not seem convinced by the social media company’s free speech case in oral arguments last week, there is a bipartisan push to delay or stop the ban.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced a bill on Monday to extend TikTok’s sale deadline by 270 days, keeping the app afloat until October. President-elect Donald Trump has similarly voiced sympathy for the platform, filing an amicus brief with the high court in support of the app after previously trying to ban it.
Though ByteDance, TikTok's owner, has expressed skepticism about a sale, which would also keep the app afloat, the Chinese government is reportedly considering selling the app to an American like X owner Elon Musk.
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