What is RedNote – the Chinese social media app TikTok users are ‘migrating’ to ahead of potential US ban | Science, Climate & Tech News

Chinese language social media app RedNote has rapidly turn out to be probably the most downloaded app on the Apple’s US App Retailer in latest days, forward of a possible US ban on TikTok.

TikTok’s Chinese language homeowners ByteDance are dealing with the prospect of the favored app being shut down completely in America on Sunday, when a US authorities ban is because of take impact.

The legislation, signed off by US President Joe Biden in April, requires TikTok to interrupt ties with its China-based mother or father firm ByteDance by mid-January – or else it will likely be blocked within the nation.

The ban is over considerations from some US politicians that ByteDance would possibly share person information from TikTok with the Chinese language authorities, regardless of repeated assurances from the agency that it will not.

However with so many video-sharing platforms like TikTok available on the market, why are its customers flooding to RedNote – and what’s the app like?

What’s RedNote?

RedNote, referred to as Xiaohongshu in China, is a Chinese language-language social media app which is now out there in English.

The app, based in 2013 by Shanghai-based Xingyin Info Expertise, is vastly fashionable in Mandarin-speaking international locations and has greater than 300 million month-to-month lively customers, in accordance with Bloomberg.

Whereas it grew steadily over time, its greatest increase in reputation got here throughout the pandemic.

It’s not precisely a TikTok clone, and has been in contrast extra carefully to Instagram.

Whereas it gives short-form movies and pictures to customers through an algorithm like TikTok, textual content posts and procuring options are additionally distinguished.

The interface is completely different from TikTok’s in {that a} video doesn’t instantly begin enjoying upon opening the app, and customers should log in to start utilizing it.

William Wang, a Chinese language RedNote content material creator who lived in Canada for a decade, has been utilizing the app for round a 12 months.

“RedNote is a mixture of Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok,” he advised Sky Information science and expertise reporter, Mickey Carroll.

“However TikTok is closely focussed on short-form movies. You simply hold scrolling and that is the way you devour all of the content material. However RedNote is extra dynamic.”

What’s driving TikTok customers within the US to RedNote?

If the objective have been as easy for US TikTok customers as discovering one other social media platform with short-form movies, then utilizing already fashionable Western apps like Meta-owned Instagram and Fb may need been a viable different.

However some American TikTok creators – a lot of whom make a residing on the app – have been urging followers to affix them in downloading RedNote to ship a message to the US authorities, which they consider is overstepping in its transfer to ban the app.

One US TikToker stated in a video: “Our authorities, I am satisfied, loves and thrives seeing us sad and seeing us battle and seeing us poor.

“Seeing that RedNote, one other Chinese language app, which is owned and hosted in China, is the primary app within the App Retailer immediately is simply lovely.”

Learn extra:
TikTok responds to reviews Elon Musk might purchase platform
Snapchat ‘asleep on the wheel’, says kids’s charity

One other US creator whose video has over 330,000 likes stated he was “so proud” of TikTok customers for downloading RedNote “as a unit, as a crew”.

There are TikTokers making severe factors, however the change to RedNote appears to have turn out to be fashionable largely as a result of meme tradition.

TikToks with tens of millions of views have proven US TikTokers “surrendering” all their information to China and changing into a “TikTok refugee” on RedNote.

Mr Wang stated: “I am considering a whole lot of these customers [switching to RedNote], they don’t seem to be pleased with the choice they usually’re making an attempt to offer a giant center finger to the institution saying… they’re rebellious, [so] they will go on a really Chinese language software – not simply TikTok, like a wholly Chinese language ecosystem.

“In order that’s very American. You realize, I form of admire that kind of spirit.”

The potential TikTok ban can also be coming at a time when Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has introduced adjustments to Fb and Instagram’s content material moderation.

One US TikToker posted a video on Sunday, which has 1.5 million likes, of her strolling with a suitcase within the snow, with a caption saying she would “fairly transfer to China than Instagram reels”.

How the US inflow is reshaping RedNote

RedNote was already a longtime and vastly profitable app in China earlier than US TikTokers caught wind of it.

“One 12 months in the past once I first began out on the platform, it was very a lot targeted on the Chinese language neighborhood,” says Mr Wang.

He says it was predominantly utilized by Chinese language worldwide college students across the globe to share their life experiences finding out abroad, and likewise by some home creators in China.

“So it’s totally, very Chinese language,” he stated.

However the RedNote panorama has shifted massively.

“I see so many American content material creators,” he stated.

The homepage of the app is stuffed with Mandarin audio system welcoming Individuals, and Individuals introducing themselves.

One submit, with almost 3,000 feedback, reads: “I am American. Do y’all like us? We all know y’all not the enemy. Can all of us be buddies?”

The replies are a mixture of individuals asking about particular English American phrases like “y’all”, welcoming the US customers, and making jokes about stealing information.

Though RedNote has been out there in English earlier than, some customers reported on Monday that it gave the impression to be extra accessible to Western customers.

Whereas all of it seems to be pleasant on the floor, Mr Wang says he has seen that some Chinese language customers have “combined emotions” in regards to the app’s sudden reputation amongst Individuals as a result of they do not wish to see a sudden inflow of Western content material.

Why is TikTok probably being banned within the US?

The US Senate final 12 months voted in favour of the Biden administration’s laws to ban TikTok within the nation.

TikTok launched an attraction, arguing the proposal was a breach of the US First Modification, which protects freedom of speech.

Nonetheless, the petition was dismissed final month by the US Court docket of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Its judges dominated the federal government’s ban was constitutional as a result of it was designed “solely to guard that freedom from a international adversary nation and to restrict that adversary’s means to assemble information on folks in the USA”.

And the US Supreme Court docket has indicated it’s going to settle for the ban if the app’s Chinese language homeowners don’t promote their stake within the US model of the app earlier than Sunday.

The White Home has stated the objective is ending Chinese language possession – not banning TikTok.

Each the FBI and Federal Communications Fee have warned that TikTok proprietor ByteDance might share person information, comparable to looking historical past, location and biometric identifiers, with China’s authoritarian authorities.

TikTok stated it has by no means achieved that and wouldn’t achieve this if requested.

The fear stems from a set of Chinese language nationwide safety legal guidelines that compel organisations to assist with intelligence gathering.

It’s not clear when the Supreme Court docket’s ultimate ruling will likely be delivered, however the ban is because of take impact on Sunday, a day earlier than Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Might RedNote find yourself getting banned too?

In principle, sure, consultants say.

Chatting with Sky Information, social media professional Adam Tinworth stated: “The laws that Biden bought via the Home has, though it particularly names TikTok and Bytedance, provisions the place the federal government can unilaterally apply the identical course of to every other hostile-foreign-power owned-service.

“So if it finally ends up all the things on TikTok migrating to RedNote, then in principle, relying on how the Trump administration feels about it, [they] might simply apply that very same laws right away to RedNote and shut it down equally simply.”

However lawmakers who crafted the invoice stated in interviews with The Washington Put up that whereas it may very well be used for foreign-controlled social media platforms, the core intention of the ban was to focus on TikTok and its sister purposes.