TikTok users flock to Chinese app RedNote before US ban

Supreme Court justices are due to rule on a law that set a 19 January deadline for TikTok to either sell its US operations or face a ban in the country.

TikTok has repeatedly said that it will not sell its US business and its lawyers have warned that a ban will violate free speech protections for the platform’s 170 million users in the US.

Meanwhile, RedNote has welcomed its new users with open arms. There are 63,000 posts on the topic “TikTok refugee”, where new users are taught how to navigate the app and how to use basic Chinese phrases.

“To our Chinese hosts, thanks for having us – sorry in advance for the chaos,” a new US user wrote.

But like TikTok, there have also been reports of censorship on RedNote when it comes to criticism of the Chinese government.

In Taiwan, public officials are restricted from using RedNote due to alleged security risks of Chinese software.

As more US users joined RedNote, some Chinese users have also jokingly referred to themselves as “Chinese spies”, a reference to US officials’ concerns that TikTok could be used by China as a tool for spying and political manipulation.

RedNote’s Chinese name, Xiaohongshu, translates to Little Red Book, but the app says it is not a reference to Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong’s book of quotations with the same name.

But security concerns have not deterred users from flocking to RedNote.

Sarah Fotheringham, a 37-year-old school canteen worker in Utah, says the move to RedNote is a way to “snub” the government.

“I’m just a simple person living a simple life,” Ms Fotheringham told the BBC in a RedNote message.

“I don’t have anything that China doesn’t, and if they want my data that bad they can have it.”

Marcus Robinson, a fashion designer in Virginia, said he created his RedNote account over the weekend to share his clothing brand and “be ahead of the curve”.

Mr Robinson told the BBC he was was only “slightly hesitant” about accepting the terms and conditions of using the app, which were written in Mandarin.

“I wasn’t able to actually read them so that was a little concerning to me,” he said, “but I took my chance.”