TikTok refugees find an alternative—in China
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. They call themselves TikTok refugees—and the app they are fleeing to is a lot more Chinese than the video-sharing app whose U.S. fate now hangs in the balance.
After Supreme Court justices Friday seemed inclined to let stand a law that would shut down TikTok in the U.S., the Chinese social-media platform Xiaohongshu, translated in English as Little Red Book, has received a flood of American TikTok users. They are looking for a sanctuary or a way to protest the potentially imminent TikTok ban—never mind that they don’t speak Chinese. Charlotte Silverstein, a 32-year-old publicist in Los Angeles, downloaded Xiaohongshu on Sunday night after seeing videos on TikTok about migrating to the app, which Americans dubbed “RedNote." She described the move as a “last act of defiance" in her frustration about the potential TikTok ban.
“Everyone has been super welcoming and sweet," said Silverstein, who has made three posts so far. “I love the sense of community that I’m seeing already." By Monday, TikTok refugees had pushed Xiaohongshu to the top of the free-app chart on Apple’s App Store. “I’m really nervous to be on this app, but I also find it to be really exciting and thrilling that we’re all doing this," one new Xiaohongshu user said in a video clip on Sunday.
“I’m sad that TikTok might actually go, but if this is where we’re gonna be hanging out, welcome to my page!" Within a day, the video had more than 3,000 comments and 6,000 likes. And the user had amassed 24,000 followers. Neither Xiaohongshu nor TikTok responded to requests for comment.
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