Former Washington Post employee Taylor Lorenz and millions of others have migrated from TikTok to another Chinese-owned app, Xiaohongshu, as users await a Supreme Court ruling on TikTok’s legality in the United States. .
Xiaohongshu, which means “little red book” in Mandarin, rose to the top spot in Apple’s App Store rankings on Monday, after TikTok’s parent company ByteDance sold the platform to continue its U.S. operations. This is consistent with future court decisions on whether
Lorenz wrote in Chinese: “Long live China.”
Wanyan
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) January 13, 2025
The app’s title is clearly a reference to Mao Zedong’s “Little Red Book,” and is widely known as “RedNote” among English-speaking users. Similar to TikTok, Xiaohongshu features lifestyle, comedy, and educational content, as well as an e-commerce platform, but it is primarily designed for and used by Chinese users.
In a post Monday, Lorenz called Xiaohongshu “America’s hottest new social app” and shared a photo of herself captioned with Mandarin characters. (Related): ‘Why are you laughing?’: Piers Morgan criticizes left-wing journalist for grinning over CEO assassination charge
Follow us on Rednote, America’s hottest new social app!! https://t.co/aC1ioGTnVx pic.twitter.com/8OepWy1wBJ
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) January 13, 2025
Some existing Xiaohongshu users have welcomed “TikTok refugees” and offered Chinese-language advice to English-speaking users who are struggling to navigate the site due to the large Chinese-speaking user base. Sometimes even.
“Welcome, refugees! First of all, I want to say welcome. No matter what your race, country of origin or language, you are welcome to RedNote,” Chinese user Rennnnn said in a video posted on the platform. he said. “Since it’s all kanji, I think it’s hard to search and find what you like.[s]. So, starting today, we will start creating videos to learn Chinese keywords. This will help you learn the platform easier and have a better time with RedNote. ”
This is the funniest thing that will happen with the TikTok ban. Rather than using Meta or YouTube to reach number one on the App Store, TikTok refugees are currently flocking to an actual Chinese-owned TikTok clone called RedNote. It’s wild. Everyone is studying Chinese. Existing users… pic.twitter.com/yuu0a7uiun
— Zack Bowling 🥑 (@zbowling) January 13, 2025
The Supreme Court is scheduled to decide on January 19 whether to uphold legislation that would force ByteDance to divest from TikTok and penalize third-party platforms like Apple and Google that host the app. If the legislation is upheld, it would effectively ban the app from operating in the United States. It is unclear whether President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office the next day, will implement the law.
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