this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2025
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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.
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[–] [email protected] 52 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (13 children)

I saw people in some Chinese source saying XiaoHongShu is updating the algorithm to segregate Chinese users and foreign users (image 1) and hiring English Post Inspectors (image 2) to moderate English contents due to China’s policy

Image 1:

Image 2:

It’s kind of like why there are Weixin and WeChat, Douyin and TikTok, Taobao and AliExpress, Pinduoduo and Temu

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I've seen chinese rednote users comparing chinese forums to 4chan and linking another source where the devs said they were working to add translation and other features to help integrate the new userbase.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 hours ago

This sounds weird… forum culture is mostly dead in China

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

I've seen a bunch of companies claiming us users are flocking to them. I guess we shall see where users end up

[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 hours ago (3 children)

Yeah, this honestly sounds like a press release with made up "users". Definitely part of a marketing campaign.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Everyone I followed on tiktok said they're going to Rednote, and my FYP on rednote is extremely active with tiktok refugees. It's also been the number 1 app on both apple and chrome for 3 days. The users are very real.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 hours ago

That picture is amazing, lol.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (3 children)

Nah, I am on xiaohongshu. Its fucking crazy. Most of the mandarin speaking audience woke up to their app filled with english. There is a running joke on the site now about US citizens "colonizing" the app. It is silly and in good fun but I cannot stress enough how real the influx of users is. Some brits are even moving there because so many Americans they follow did. I have seen multiple chinese citizens have their account jump from a few hundred followers to 30k in an hour or two. I mean you can hop on and see for yourself, it is free. It has actually been really wholesome so far and I hope the vibes continue to be good.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 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] 17 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 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] 8 points 7 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] 0 points 5 hours ago (4 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] 3 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (2 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 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 8 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"

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 hours ago

It's company advertising for sure, they lose to go after low hanging fruit in order to entrap them and harvest whatever they can without a care for damage they do

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

RedNote is seeing the largest influx of new users right now. There's a few other TikTok-like apps that are also seeing some bumps, but RedNote is soaring.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Most likely banned because the rules on that app are insane. It’s made for chinese people abroad and the chinese government does not want a bunch of foreigners there anyway.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (7 children)

It seems similar to tiktok; nudity is not OK, but sex-adjacent stuff like bondage is just fine. Art is fine as long as the genitals and nips are censored.

If anything, the chinese government should be thrilled by the idea of Americans seeing that chinese people are just like them and learning first-hand that 90% of what they thought they knew about China was just racism and western propaganda.

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 hours ago

i know china's not as bad as north korea when it comes to this sorta thing, but they really just let that happen

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 hours ago

People really are that dumb. We really deserve everything we have.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 hours ago (12 children)
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Doubt. Just sounds like they capitalized on spreading this hoping to make it real

Edit it’s working jeez the general population is so stupid

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

What's to doubt? Open your app store and look at the current top app.

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