this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2025
99 points (86.7% liked)

Technology

60450 readers
4105 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Americans are joining the Chinese social media app en masse to protest an imminent TikTok ban.

  • American users have flocked to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu in defiance of security warnings.
  • Chinese and American users have engaged in surprisingly friendly conversations about each other’s lives.
  • The influx of American users could burden Xiaohongshu’s censorship mechanism, experts say.
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

With all due respect, this comment is exactly what a faked "Grass roots marketing campaign" would write. But your account has an extensive post history, so thats a lot more effort than a typical astro turf account.

Also, inflating subscriber numbers and view counts wouldn't be out of the question either, remember Facebook video...

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

I just talk like that. Is it so hard to believe that there are plenty of Americans who would flock to a genuinely chinese owned social media out of spite or just bc it is funny? I haven't even seen an ad on the site so I don't think they are making enough money to astroturf nor can I find a reason why they'd want to.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

I dont mean that your tone is bot like or anything, just that they would want authentic voices.

I do find it hard to beleive, because look at the reddit and twitter transitions. They either took years (bluesky is only barely starting to gain notability, and I'm not convinced that isn't also doing astroturfing) or never happened (Lemmy userbase is a rounding error). Getting people to switch social media is very difficult. And tiktok isnt even banned yet.

Also, just because there are no ads, doesn't mean that no one is propping up the business. Someone is paying to keep the servers running and lights on, and an astro turfing campaign isnt that expensive. Social media companies either grow or die.

So if your liking this new site, power to you, but I suggest you enjoy it while it lasts, because its going to have to become profitable somehow, and that is never good for the users.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

Remember that twiiter was not up against a deadline. There was no reason to move to move quickly.

We just had a supreme Court hearing on tiktok yesterday and it didn't look good for tiktok. That's why this is more sudden.

Why RedNote instead of loops.video or something? I'm not sure how the influencers decided to go there. Maybe that's your conspiracy. Or maybe one person thought of migrating to another Chinese app as protest and other people copied them

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Also, just because there are no ads, doesn’t mean that no one is propping up the business.

There is a shopping tab, and ads are allowed as long as it's declared I think. Undeclared sponsored content gets bans.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 hours ago

Id question the intelligence of anyone who used any app specifically because of a country associated with it when it's not an app about countries. Going to Chinese apps just because TikTok gets banned is kinda silly imo, but then again I don't use state-sponsored social media like TikTok or instagram etc

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago

My roommate mentioned it a few days ago, and I found out this evening that her and her girlfriend are both using it. While it may have started off as an astroturf, it's legit now.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago

Just check it out, the volume of engagement is massive enough the FYP page can get very specific and very recent.

There's even a few Australians like "Yeah, they're not gonna ban the app, but here's a kangaroo"