Jan 17, 2025 11:13:00

Experts say TikTok refugees may move to Chinese SNS 'Little Red Book' and be subject to similar restrictions as TikTok

With the implementation of the 'TikTok Ban' looming, 'refugees' are beginning to leave TikTok. TikTok is

encouraging users to move to 'Lemon8,' which is developed by the same parent company, ByteDance, but an app that is just as popular, or even more so, is ' Lemon8 .'

As 'TikTok refugees' flock to RedNote, a US official says the Chinese app could be banned, too - CBS News
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tiktok-rednote-china-us-congress-ban/

Over half a million 'TikTok refugees' flock to China's RedNote | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/technology/over-half-million-tiktok-refugees-flock-chinas-rednote-2025-01-14/

The RedNote honeymoon won't last - by Taylor Lorenz
https://www.usermag.co/p/the-rednote-honeymoon-wont-last

There are an estimated 170 million TikTok users in the United States, and in the wake of the 'TikTok ban,' they are looking for new places to relocate.

What will happen when TikTok's deadline 'January 19, 2025' arrives? - GIGAZINE

One popular migration destination is Lemon8, developed by ByteDance, the same company behind TikTok. The number of app downloads in December 2024 was 3.4 million, a 190% increase from the previous month.

Xiaohongshu is gaining more momentum than Lemon8. The number of downloads is up 200% year-on-year and 194% week-on-week, and it is said that more than 700,000 users were added in just two days. It has been reported that the number of Chinese language learners on the foreign language learning app Duolingo has increased by 216% year-on-year, possibly due to the UI being written in Chinese (Mandarin).

TikTok ban leads to 216% increase in number of Duolingo users learning Chinese compared to the same period last year - GIGAZINE

However, experts point out that Xiaohongshu is by no means a stable destination for people to move to.

According to experts, TikTok's US business at least stores information on servers in the US and provides the US government with information about how much data it sends to China and what restrictions it imposes, but Xiaohongshu is only intended for the Chinese market.

In addition, since the terms of use are written in Chinese, it is likely that many people use the service by skimming through machine translations without understanding the exact content, and it is unclear how the collected data will be used.

Furthermore, the 'TikTok Ban Law' is merely a nickname, and its actual purpose is to 'crack down on social media platforms operated by hostile foreign companies.' Therefore, if the number of users of Little Red Book increases, it is highly likely that it will also become subject to the law.

According to the news site CBS News, when asked whether Little Red Book constitutes a 'national security threat' that would be subject to regulation by law, the Trump transition team did not respond.