As the TikTok ban went from an absurd stunt to a stark reality, users scrambled to find a replacement. It might seem logical for users to move to some of the popular American-based platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, but many users took an unexpected route—one that shot a Chinese app to the top of U.S. app stores.
In the days before the ban, Chinese-based app Xiaohongshu jumped from 650 thousand active US users on Jan 12 to 3.4 million on Jan 13, according to pcmag.com. At the time, the app had no English translation feature, leaving users with the tedious task of translating everything themselves. Why would millions of users pass up established American-based social media platforms in favor of Xiaohongshu?
Like many people, I believe the ban was a ploy to take away our free speech and force us to move to the heavily censored, right-leaning META platforms. TikTok’s groundbreaking algorithm offered communities to even the niches of interest. Due to features like the stitches, duets, and automatic links to relevant topics in captions and comments, the app allowed the rapid spread of information.
“TikTok has always shown me stories and voices that were censored by META,” senior psychology major Brianna Cutforth said when asked about the issue.
People moved to Redbook not only to spite the corrupt politicians preaching about saving our data from the Chinese but also to preserve our free speech. Even the title of the app is the perfect mockery to those who have been fear-mongering about communist China. Xiaohongshu directly translates to “little red book”. An interpretation especially popular with American users relates it to the Little Red Book written by Mao Tse-tung, former chairman of the Chinese Communist Party.
The government’s attacks on our constitutional rights have gotten so out of hand that we would rather use an app that we can’t understand than move to META platforms. Junior psychology major Cally Pickel comments on the issue.
“It makes it glaringly obvious how the government is trying to censor the free exchange of information between people, especially between Americans and people in other countries,” Pickel said.
Xiaohongshu quickly accommodated its new American consumers by adding a translation feature. As videos of cheap fresh food, accessible healthcare and widespread public transport highlight the disparities between the U.S. and China, it’s clear that the ban has done the opposite of what those who wanted it hoped it would do. With an algorithm that rivals TikTok, the app is perfectly poised to become America’s new premier social media platform.
