Tiktok Refugees Flee To Rednote In Intensifying Digital Cold War
Date
1/18/2025 5:04:41 AM
(MENAFN- Asia Times)
Social media giant TikTok is preparing to shut down its app in the United States this Sunday – the day that legislation signed by President Joe Biden last year banning the app takes effect.
There is a slim chance this dramatic development might not happen if the US Supreme Court accepts a last-minute legal argument from TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, that the ban is unconstitutional – or if ByteDance divests its US operations.
But the 170 million users of TikTok in the US aren't taking any chances. Many self-described“TikTok refugees” have begun to flee to alternative social media sites, mocking the alleged security concerns on TikTok in the process.“Goodbye to my Chinese spy” has become a new TikTok trend .
The most popular alternative that has emerged is the Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu (known as RedNote in English). On January 13, the app surged to number one in the US Apple App Store, attracting more than 700,000 new users.
This mass digital migration of social media users marks a new phase in the ongoing digital cold war between the US and China. But there are many questions about whether RedNote – or any other alternative platform – will be a viable, long-term refuge for US TikTok users if the ban goes ahead.
What is RedNote?
Owned by Shanghai-based Xingyin Information Technology and established in 2013, RedNote is a Chinese-language lifestyle, social networking and e-commerce platform. It has a hybrid style of Instagram-meets-Pinterest and approximately 300 million monthly active users – the majority of whom are in China.
RedNote stores its users' personal data in China, in compliance with China's data protection and cybersecurity laws and other regulatory policies.
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