Americans and Chinese share jokes about ‘alternative TikTok’ as US ban looms

An impending ban on TikTok has connected Chinese and American citizens like never before as they swap jokes and memes in what one user described as a “historic moment.”

It all takes place on a popular Chinese social media app called RedNote or Xiaohongshu (literally translated as Little Red Book), which lacks the usual internet firewall that separates China from the rest of the world.

This is self-professional painting US ‘TikTok Refugees’ are looking for a new home on the internet – despite the fact that their own government is looking to ban TikTok due to national security concerns.

Americans now find themselves in direct contact with 300 million Mandarin speakers in China and elsewhere — while in the real world, Beijing braces for a tumultuous Trump presidency that could strain its fragile ties with Washington.

At the heart of the US ban is the fear that China is using TikTok to spy on Americans.

The app has faced accusations that user data is ending up in the hands of the Chinese government – due to a Beijing law that requires local companies to “support, assist and cooperate with state intelligence work”. TikTok denies that this ever happened or will happen.

But that possibility doesn’t seem to worry some US users — 700,000 new users have signed up for RedNote in the past two days, making it the most downloaded free app in the US app store.

“The reason our government is telling us they’re banning TikTok is because they insist it’s owned by you, the Chinese people, the government, whatever,” said one new RedNote user, Definitelynotchippy.

She goes on to explain why she’s on RedNote: “However, many of us are smarter than that, so we decided to piss off our government and download a real Chinese app. We call that trolling, so in short, we’re here to spite our government and learn about China and date you guys.”

TikTok, although owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is based in Singapore and says it is independently run. Actually, the Chinese version of TikTok is another app called Douyin. RedNote, on the other hand, is a Chinese company based in Shanghai and among the few social media apps available both inside and outside of China.

So Washington’s fears about TikTok will spill over to RedNote.

That’s why American RedNote users are calling themselves “Chinese spies” – continuing a trend on TikTok where people have said goodbye to their “personal Chinese spy” who has allegedly been watching them over the years.

RedNote is already full of posts where ex-TikTok users are looking for a replacement. One post read: “Looking for my Chinese spy. i miss you Please help me find him.’

And Chinese users have responded: “I’m here!”

Honest, fun conversations on RedNote may not be what Chinese President Xi Jinping had in mind when he spoke of “strengthening people-to-people cultural exchanges” between China and the US.

But it’s certainly happening, as excited Chinese users welcome curious Americans to the app.

“You don’t even have to travel abroad, you can just talk to foreigners here,” said one Chinese RedNote user in a video that has received more than 6,000 likes.

“But it’s honestly crazy, no one would have expected that we could meet like this one day, openly communicate like this.”

Food, streaming shows and work are the most popular topics: “Is life in America like what it looks like on (US TV show) Friends?”

Other Chinese users demanded a “tax” for using the platform – pictures of cats.

“California cat tax,” read one post in response. “Here’s my suggestion – the shorthair is a boy named Bob and the calico is a girl named Marley.”

Still others use the platform to ask Americans for help with their English homework.

One post read: “Dear TikTok refugees, can you tell me the answer to question 53? Is the answer T (True) or F (False)?’

Help came quickly: around 500 people have since responded.

The influx of new US users seems to have caught RedNote off guard – reports say the company is hiring English moderators.

Others are also trying to cash in on RedNote’s newfound American fame: language learning app Duolingo released a chart showing a 216% jump in user base compared to this time last year.

However, RedNote’s growing popularity is not guaranteed to last.

There’s no reason to think it won’t face a backlash for the same reasons as TikTok: concerns that it could be used by China to spy on Americans.

It is not clear how long Beijing will be open to such unrestricted exchange – control of the Internet is key to its repressive regime.

The irony of the situation was noted by one Chinese user who posted: “Don’t we have a (firewall)? How can so many foreigners get in when apparently I can’t leave?’

Normally, Chinese Internet users cannot interact directly with foreigners. Global platforms like Twitter and Instagram and search engines like Google are blocked in China, although people use VPNs to bypass these restrictions. Sensitive topics – from history to dissent – or anything deemed critical of China’s government and ruling Communist Party are quickly censored.

It’s unclear how censored RedNote is — it’s mostly used by younger and middle-aged women in China, where they share images and videos. It’s not like Weibo, another Chinese app, where discussions and airing of complaints are much more common, resulting in frequent removals of posts.

But a handful of new RedNote users say they’ve already received reports that their posts violated the guidelines, including one who asked in a post whether the app was “LGBT friendly.”

Another said they asked “What do the Chinese think (sic) about gays?” and have received a similar notice that they have breached “public morals” guidelines.

And Chinese users continue to remind Americans on the app “not to mention sensitive topics such as politics, religion and drugs.”

One Chinese user also advised them to stick to the “one-China policy,” the diplomatic pillar of US-China relations — under which the US recognizes and has official ties with China, not Taiwan, the self-governing island Beijing claims as its own. own.

The US government has so far not commented on RedNote, and neither has Beijing.

But Chinese state media seems optimistic about it, with the Global Times even interviewing a US user who said she “would like to interact with Chinese users”.

The American fate of RedNote is anyone’s guess – but for now, at least online, the US-China rivalry is taking a break. Thanks to the cat pictures.