On Sunday, if the Biden administration gets its way, the third of American adults who use TikTok could abruptly be deprived of the social media app. And over the past several days, self-described “TikTok refugees” have been flocking to another Chinese app called RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu, which roughly translates to “little red book” (as in, Mao’s). It’s not clear who started the trend, but it’s undeniable: RedNote surged to the top of both Apple and Android’s app stores. Taylor Lorenz, the uber-progressive internet commentator, described it as “the hottest new social app in America!!”
Unlike TikTok, RedNote, which started in Shanghai in 2013 and has over 300 million active monthly users, is an unmistakably Chinese app. When you first open it to sign up, you’re greeted by a wall of Mandarin. The terms and conditions are also in Mandarin: For all I know, I could have just signed over my 401(k) to Xi Jinping himself. And while TikTok is banned in its native China, RedNote is available to the 1.4 billion people living there, and who make up the majority of its userbase. When you log on, you are greeted with a feed nearly identical to TikTok’s, an endless scroll of photos and short-form videos—and they are overwhelmingly in Chinese. And unlike some social media sites such as X, there is no button to auto-translate text.
President Biden signed a bill last spring that would ban TikTok if its Beijing-based parent company doesn’t sell the app to a U.S. buyer. Ever since then, Zoomers have been sardonically bidding farewell to the Chinese spies assigned to monitor their online activities. “It’s been real, my Chinese friend,” one posted. Another imagined “trying to reconnect with my Chinese spy on the dark web” after a TikTok ban, “cuz I never felt more seen and understood than I did with him.” The joke has carried over to RedNote, with some Americans posting that they’re looking for their “new Chinese spy.”
The Chinese users on RedNote seem bemused by these TikTok refugees, asking questions like: “Why are you here? Is it because your TikTok has been banned?”
But overall they are welcoming to the Americans, posting videos with titles like “Hello from your New Chinese spy.”
They have only one demand.