TikTok customers flock to Chinese language app RedNote earlier than US ban

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 probably 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, largely younger city girls, to alternate way of life suggestions from courting to vogue.

Supreme Court docket justices are resulting from 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 attorneys 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 find out how to navigate the app and find out how to use fundamental Chinese language phrases.

“To our Chinese language hosts, thanks for having us – sorry upfront for the chaos,” a brand new US consumer wrote.

However like TikTok, there have additionally been experiences of censorship on RedNote in the case of criticism of the Chinese language authorities.

In Taiwan, public officers are restricted from utilizing RedNote resulting from 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 instrument for spying and political manipulation.

RedNote’s Chinese language title, Xiaohongshu, interprets to Little Crimson Guide, however the app says it isn’t a reference to Chinese language communist chief Mao Zedong’s ebook 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 information that dangerous they’ll have it.”

Marcus Robinson, a designer 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 circumstances of utilizing the app, which had been written in Mandarin.

“I wasn’t capable of really 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 might kill it over time.

However even when TikTok dodges a ban, it might show helpless towards customers shifting to different 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 capable of see issues I by no means would have seen,” she stated. “Common Chinese language folks, discovering out about their tradition, life, faculty, every little thing, it has been a lot enjoyable.”

The group thus far has been “tremendous welcoming”, stated Mr Robinson, the designer.

“I like RedNote thus far … I simply have to learn to converse Mandarin!”