• TikTok may be banned in the US this week over fears that the app could share user data with China.
• In a show of protest, US TikTokers are moving to a purely Chinese app and handing their data directly to a Chinese entity in the process.
• US users have praised RedNote users for welcoming them with open arms and helping them learn Mandarin.

With TikTok set to be banned this week barring a turnabout from the US Supreme Court, US citizens are now trying to “stick it to the man” as we used to say.

Seemingly in an act of protest, the top app on the Apple App Store is Xiaohongshu or RedNote (technically it’s Little Red Book) for those who don’t speak Mandarin. Comparable to Instagram in the West, Xiaohongshu is over a decade old and has about 300 million active monthly users.

Like many Chinese apps, ecommerce is baked into RedNote with many creators highlighting that the point of the app is to find recommendations for restaurants, shopping and more.

The application seemingly scratches the TikTok itch as well and as such, Americans are flocking to it. More importantly though, moving to RedNote is being played up as an act of resistance against the US government. This is because while the US government argues that TikTok’s relationship with China is a danger, there are many apps from the nation still free from scrutiny. Since the ban was first mentioned, many have theorised that the real reason TikTok is under fire is because it threatens US-based social platforms from Meta and Twitter, now X.

Most of the videos about Xiaohongshu from Americans are praising the app and its users for being friendly and welcoming, many even claim they are now speaking Mandarin as that is the main language used on the app. Both US and Chinese users are joking and just having a whale of a time from what we can see.

How lawmakers feel about this is unclear, but something tells us that RedNote may soon be in their crosshairs if the popularity of the app is sustained.

As a reminder, the US is looking to ban TikTok based on fears that the app will pass user data to the Chinese government which would in turn conduct influence campaigns. This is despite ByteDance making ever effort possible to comply with the demands of US lawmakers. The platform even set up infrastructure in the US as a show that it was serious about abiding by the laws of the land. That all seems to have been for nought as aging lawmakers cling to their “China bad” mentality.

As many have pointed out however, influence campaigns are conducted in the US without TikTok. Hell, a few months ago YouTubers were caught with their pants down when it was discovered they were being paid to push Russian propaganda. Those YouTubers denied having knowledge of the influence campaign despite earning far more than what the market would dictate for the content they produced. Tim Pool, one of the personalities caught up in the furore went so far as to say him and his ilk were “deceived and are victims”. Weirdly, there has never been mention of YouTube being banned because of this, likely because it’s a US-based platform and data collection, influence campaigns and the like are fine in that context.

What happens next is unclear but if the Supreme Court upholds the law that would ban TikTok, we suspect that RedNote will see even more Americans flocking to its platform. There are already reports that the developers are working overtime to accommodate the influx of new users. Some have also complained that they aren’t able to get their registration code, a problem we’ve had as well. As TechCrunch reports, the platform also seemingly has no aspirations to expand operations into the US which would make policing it next to impossible.

We’re still waiting to hear how the Supreme Court rules on this TikTok matter and with the ban set to go into effect on 19th January, we’re waiting for news on that this week. Weirdly, Donald Trump who takes every opportunity he can to berate China may be TikTok’s saving grace.

2025 is getting off to a wild start.