When TikTok went down, RedNote appeared like the proper backup—till customers hit a wall with its strict guidelines.
A couple of days after TikTok briefly went offline after which made a rapid comeback within the US, individuals who had deleted the app tried to reinstall it—solely to comprehend it was nonetheless unavailable. As an alternative of their regular feed, they bought a pop-up message saying a regulation had banned TikTok within the US and that “President Trump has indicated that he’ll work with us on an answer to reinstate TikTok as soon as he takes workplace.” That’s when the time period “TikTok refugees” began popping up.
With TikTok out of the image, many customers rushed to RedNote (Xiaohongshu), one other Chinese language social media app. However making the swap hasn’t been as simple as they hoped.
It didn’t take lengthy for some customers to start out feeling pissed off with RedNote’s strict censorship guidelines, that are much more intense than what they’re used to. Even so, the app skyrocketed to the highest of the US Apple App Retailer for a day. However what’s subsequent? May RedNote exchange TikTok, or is it only a momentary repair? Let’s break it down.
RedNote censorship
In contrast to TikTok, which separates its Chinese language model from the worldwide one, RedNote affords a single platform for everybody. This makes it simpler for customers from totally different nations to attach and work together on-line.
However, whereas RedNote creates a shared expertise, it additionally enforces strict content material guidelines. The web isn’t at all times the friendliest place—you’ll run into impolite feedback and other people taking patriotism too far. Having clear censorship guidelines is smart, however RedNote takes issues additional. The platform tightly controls subjects like politics, medicine, and sexuality, setting even harder limits than related social networks.
One Tiktok refugee bought pissed off when RedNote eliminated his higher physique photograph. He questioned why he couldn’t share health photos displaying his abs, saying TikTok and Instagram by no means gave him this drawback.
One other newcomer, who identifies as non-binary, noticed their publish eliminated after asking if RedNote welcomes LGBTQ+ folks. In the meantime, Chinese language customers discovered artistic methods to work round these restrictions. For instance, @NerudaLingChinese suggests utilizing hashtags like #le for lesbians and #T for tomboys.
Does VPN work for TikTok?
US TikTok customers attempting to get across the ban with VPNs aren’t having a lot luck. It seems like TikTok has put additional measures in place to dam entry for Individuals.
Apparently, if TikTok detects you’re within the US or utilizing an account made there, it gained’t allow you to in. My good friend within the US tried utilizing NordVPN, and it didn’t work for him.
Nobody’s precisely positive how TikTok is implementing the ban, however the truth that VPNs aren’t working is fascinating—particularly since they labored when India banned the app.
Why is Xiaohongshu so widespread?
Although Xiaohongshu is a giant hit in China—the corporate has stayed fairly beneath the radar. In reality, it hasn’t up to date its English-language information web page in years.
Just lately, although, Xiaohongshu’s downloads within the US have practically tripled. Celebrities are leaping on board too. Canadian rapper bbno$ is posting. Maye Musk, Elon Musk’s mother, already has greater than 600,000 followers on the platform, the place she shares way of life and style content material. She steadily visits China after signing a take care of the electronics large Oppo to signify its flagship smartphone globally.
So, what’s drawing Individuals in? Xiaohongshu lets customers share brief movies and textual content posts that always spark lengthy, Reddit-style remark threads. Like TikTok, it makes use of a sensible algorithm to suggest content material and preserve customers engaged. It’s simple to see why persons are spending a lot time on it.
Parting ideas
Whether or not Xiaohongshu stays widespread within the US or will get overtaken by different apps is dependent upon how shortly they make the platform user-friendly for English audio system. In addition they want to determine methods to deal with English content material.
Over the weekend, Xiaohongshu added a characteristic that lets translate posts and feedback between Mandarin and English.
On the identical time, I seen job listings from Chinese language tech outsourcing corporations. They’re on the lookout for content material moderators to handle the flood of English posts and movies being uploaded.
General, the concept behind the platform is fairly fascinating. By combining Reddit and TikTok options, it might entice quite a lot of TikTok refugees, and past. For extra updates, try Gadget Stream’s tech information part!
