With the threat of a restrictions just weeks apart, TikTok users in the US are switching to a Chinese app called Red Note.
RedNote became the most popular game on Apple’s US App Store on Monday due to the actions of people who identify themselves as” TikTok immigrants.”
RedNote is a TikTok company favorite with younger people in China, Taiwan and other Mandarin-speaking groups.
It appears to be a mix of TikTok and Instagram, with about 300 million regular clients. It allows people, mostly young industrial women, to swap lifestyle tips from dating to style.
Supreme Court justices are scheduled to act on a regulation that establishes a 19 January deadline for TikTok to both buy its US operations or be subject to a national ban.
TikTok has frequently stated that it won’t sell its US company, and its attorneys have warned that a ban would violate the product’s 170 million US people ‘ free speech rights.
However, RedNote has welcomed its fresh customers with open arms. There are 63, 000 comments about the matter” TikTok refugee,” in which new people are taught how to use common Chinese expressions and terms.
” To our Foreign visitors, thanks for having us- guilty in progress for the chaos”, a fresh US user wrote.
However, there have also been reports of repression on RedNote when it comes to censure of the Chinese government, just like there is TikTok.
Open officials in Taiwan are prohibited from using RedNote because of alleged security concerns posed by Chinese software.
Some Chinese people have jokedly called themselves” Chinese spies” in response to US officials ‘ fears that TikTok could be used by China as a tool for political manipulation and spying as more US consumers have joined Red Note.
Red Note’s Chinese brand, Xiaohongshu, translates to Little Red Bok, but the game says it is not a reference to Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong’s reserve of passages with the same name.
People of RedNote are still flocked to the website, despite safety concerns.
Sarah Fotheringham, a 37-year-old school cafeteria employee in Utah, says the shift to RedNote is a way to” snubbed” the state.
In a RedNote information to the BBC, Ms Fotheringham stated,” I’m just a plain man living a plain life.”
” If China wants my information that badly, they can have it,” I don’t have anything that China doesn’t, and they don’t have it.
Virginia-based fashion designer Marcus Robinson claimed to have created his RedNote accounts over the weekend to “be ahead of the curve” and discuss his clothing line.
Mr. Robinson claimed to be only” somewhat hesitant” about accepting the terms and conditions for using the software, 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 opportunity”.
While a ban won’t cause TikTok to vanish instantly, it will require application stores to prevent offering it, which may eventually cause it to become obsolete.
Actually if TikTok avoids a ban, it may prove ineffective in preventing customers from switching to other programs.
Some social media users claim to scroll on RedNote more frequently than TikTok.
Tennessee tech worker Sydney Crawley told the BBC,” Even if TikTok does stay, I will continue to use my platform I’ve created on Red Note.”
Ms. Crawley claimed to have over 6, 000 fans within the first 24 hours of using her RedNote accounts.
” I will continue to try to develop a following there and see what new contacts, friends, or prospects it brings me”.
Ms Fotheringham, the canteen employee, said RedNote “opened my earth up to China and its people”.
” I am now able to see things I never would have seen”, she said. ” Ordinary Taiwanese people, finding out about their lifestyle, career, school, everyone, it has been so many fun”.
The area so far has been” super welcoming”, said Mr Robinson, the artist.
” I love RedNote but much; I just need to learn how to speak Mandarin”!