It’s an unexpected union bought on by the looming TikTok ban thanks to a social media app that doesn’t even officially have an English name.
With the fate of TikTok up in the air in America, social media users have flocked to another Chinese-owned app called Xiaohongshu – and users are bonding as they adapt to the platform.
The name of the social media app, which translates to Little Red Book, has been shortened by US users to RedNote and has been so popular it surged to the top position on Apple’s US App Store this week.
As per CNN, as of Wednesday, the hashtag ‘TikTok refugee’ had nearly 250 million views and over 5.5 million comments, referencing the thousands of American users that had downloaded the app.
The sudden rush to the new platform has resulted in users uniting over their shared use, with Chinese users helping Americans translate and navigate the interface.
‘I downloaded the app and checked it out and it’s currently thousands of people from America and China all laughing and meme-ing together,’ one user wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
They continued: ‘Chinese users will post a cat saying “I’m stealing your cat’s data!” and then they laugh and share cat photos with each other.’
Even language app Duolingo chimed in, with a sarcastic post saying: ‘Oh so NOW you’re learning Mandarin.’
In one viral post, a Xiaohongshu user asked the new American users for help with their English homework in a viral post with over 2,000 likes.
‘Me telling my grandkids about how the government spread propaganda about the Chinese and how we eventually became friends through memes and English homework,’ one reaction read.
‘I want an American friend,’ another comment from a Chinese user read.
‘This is what the internet was always supposed to be. Humans connecting with humans and finally learning that the real enemies are the ones who stand to lose power when we realize there are more of us than there are of them,’ one passionate user wrote.
‘I joined last night and for the most part, they just want us to respect them and their culture and they’re really excited to finally have a platform where we can communicate together,’ another American user chimed in.
On X, a user joked that: ‘Banning TikTok may have been the biggest step on achieving world peace in human history.’
‘Forget TikTok, we’re out here uniting nations one meme at a time,’ agreed another.
Another X user, AI expert Olivia Moore, described the American migration to RedNote as the ‘craziest accidental cultural exchange ever.’
‘Hundreds of thousands of users landed in an app not localized or in their language. One day in, and it’s already considered rude not to subtitle videos in the other language,’ she posted online.
Launched in Shanghai in 2013, RedNote combines elements of Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest, allowing users to share lifestyle content, product reviews, and short videos.
RedNote also lets users livestream video clips and offers integrated e-commerce features that allow people to shop directly within the app.
While TikTok focuses on short-form videos, RedNote also includes images, reviews and community discussions.
With over 300 million monthly active users, it has gained popularity as an alternative to TikTok amid concerns over a potential ban on the latter in the US.
A US law sets a January 19 deadline for ByteDance to sell the popular social media platform or face a ban on national security grounds.
A lawyer for TikTok, Noel Francisco, said it would be impossible to complete a sale by then of the short video app used by 170 million Americans and said the site would quickly go dark and ‘essentially the platform shuts down’.
TikTok also claims the decision would be a violation of free speech for its millions of American users in the nation.
