RedNote Scrambles to Hire English-Speaking Content Moderators

Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu — better known internationally as RedNote — jumped to expand its ability to moderate English-language content after tens of thousands of American users. Suddenly joined the platform Potentially in anticipation of TikTok being banned Sunday in the US.

WIRED this week identified some job listings posted on the hiring platform by China’s tech outsourcing companies for content moderators who can help manage the unexpected influx of English videos and posts uploaded to Xiaohongshu. (Also posted several new job postings looking for content moderators who can work in Chinese, the platform’s default language.)

VXI Global Solutions, an American customer service firm that has operated in China since the early 2000s, posted job vacancies on recruitment websites. Zhilian Zhaopin And boss jeepMentions that candidates will “moderate videos via foreign friends’ accounts on Xiaohongshu.” Employers even label one of the list Xiaohongshu overnight emergency appointment—TikTok refugee restraint, short-term [contracts] accepted.”

Xinhui dyeing technologyAn IT service outsourcing company, and TransXiaohongshu, an AI-powered translation service provider, posted a similar job posting this week for English-speaking content moderators to work for it. WIRED contacted all three companies to confirm the validity of the list. None of them responded in time for publication. Xiaohongshu also did not immediately return a request for comment.

Job salaries range from 4,500 RMB to 8,000 RMB per month (about $600 to $1,100). Applicants must demonstrate their English language skills and prove that they have passed a proficiency test. a list Note that The position must be filled within three days, and candidates need not apply if they cannot start immediately.

China’s Cyberspace Administration, the country’s top internet watchdog, is already said to be concerned about content shared by foreigners on Xiaohongshu. The CAC warned the platform earlier this week to “ensure that China-based users cannot view posts by US users”. Information.

China’s social media platforms are legally required to remove a wide range of content, including nudity and graphic violence, but especially information that the government deems politically sensitive. Platforms like Xiaohongshu rely on large teams of contractors managed by outsourcing companies that respond to emergency situations as well as routine enforcement.

“RedNote—like all platforms owned by Chinese companies—is subject to the Chinese Communist Party’s repressive laws,” Ally Funk, technology and democracy research director at the nonprofit human rights organization Freedom House, wrote in an email to WIRED. “Independent researchers have documented that keywords deemed sensitive to those in power, such as discussions of labor strikes or criticism of Xi Jinping, can be scrubbed from the platform.”

But the influx of American TikTok users — 700,000 in just two days, According to Reuters—This could dilute Xiaohongshu’s content moderation powers, said Eric Liu, an editor at China Digital Times, a California-based publication documenting censorship in China, who himself worked as a content moderator for the Chinese social media platform Weibo.