Thousands of US TikTok users are flooding to the Chinese platform Red. It could prove a double-edged sword for the Chinese government. TikTok, the wo

Will China welcome TikTok refugees?

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2025-01-15 23:30:07

Thousands of US TikTok users are flooding to the Chinese platform Red. It could prove a double-edged sword for the Chinese government.

TikTok, the world’s fifth most popular social media platform, is running out of time. Its fate in the US will be determined on January 19, when the US Supreme Court will decide whether to accept the argument from TikTok’s legal team that the proposed ban of the platform constitutes an infringement of the First Amendment and should therefore be thrown out.

In the meantime, anticipating TikTok’s likely loss in this legal battle, thousands of TikTok users are signing up with the Chinese platform Xiaohongshu (known in English as Little Red Book or RedNote; hereafter “Red”). Some TikTok influencers are also moving their channels to Red, taking with them thousands of followers they have accumulated on TikTok.

The move by users who call themselves “TikTok refugees” has made RedNote the most downloaded app on Apple’s US App Store, as of Monday. It’s hard to estimate the exact number of migrating users, but some estimate that it’s likely only a small fraction of TikTok’s 170 million American users.