RedNote earned nearly 3 million “TikTok refugees” in a single day.
As TikTok faces a complete shutdown in the United States this Sunday, millions of Americans are making a seemingly counterintuitive choice — migrating to RedNote, another Chinese-owned social media platform that could face similar regulatory scrutiny leading to his detention.
As one Utah-based user told the BBC, “I don’t have anything that China doesn’t have, and if they want my data bad enough, they can have it.” That stance, combined with the platform’s rapid growth, sets the stage for what could become the next big battle over social media regulation in the United States.
What is RedNote and why are millions of Americans joining it?
The platform, known as Xiaohongshu in China, has seen unprecedented growth in adoption in the US. According to analytics firm Similarweb, RedNote gained nearly 3 million US users in a single day, growing from less than 700,000 daily active users to roughly 3.4 million. This dramatic influx has propelled the app to the top spot in Apple’s US App Store, marking a remarkable shift in the American social media landscape.
What makes this exodus particularly striking is its apparent contradiction — Americans are responding to a ban intended to protect them from potential Chinese data collection by voluntarily joining another Chinese platform. Self-proclaimed “TikTok Refugees” are flooding RedNote with introductory posts and engaging in cultural exchanges with Chinese users, creating an unprecedented bridge between American and Chinese social media users.
The platform, founded in 2013, combines elements of Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok, providing a lifestyle-focused environment where over 300 million monthly users share their experiences. While much smaller than TikTok’s US user base of 170 million, RedNote has quickly become a cultural phenomenon, with American users and Chinese hosts engaging in everything from language exchanges to homework help.
Will RedNote be banned in the US too?
Experts and officials are already raising concerns about the migration of RedNote users to the US.
Despite RedNote’s rise in popularity, cybersecurity experts and US officials are already raising concerns about this migration. According to Adrianus Warmenhoven, a cybersecurity expert at Nord VPN, RedNote may actually pose greater risks than TikTok. “RedNote was never intended for outside of the China market. All of the data sharing and all of the servers that the data is shared on are in China,” Warmenhoven told CBS News, noting that this puts the data outside US government oversight.
A US official also told CBS News that RedNote could face the same regulatory scrutiny as TikTok under the Act to Protect Americans from Applications Controlled by Foreign Adversaries. The law applies to any platform that meets specific criteria – having more than 1 million monthly users, allowing content to be shared and controlled by a company in a designated foreign adversary country such as China.
In terms of content control and censorship, RedNote’s moderation policies seem stricter than TikTok’s. CBS News’ analysis found that searches for terms like “Xi Jinping” and “free Hong Kong” return no results, while discussions of Taiwan must match Beijing’s political narrative. The platform is said to be increasing its content moderation operations and advertising positions for English content reviewers in mainland China.
The timing of this transition adds another layer of complexity. President-elect Donald Trump, who previously tried to ban TikTok during his first term, has recently voiced opposition to the current ban. His transition team has not yet commented on whether his administration might designate RedNote as a national security threat under the same legislation.
Looking Forward
As Sunday’s deadline approaches, the future remains uncertain for both TikTok and RedNote in the US market. The current migration highlights a fascinating paradox in digital platform regulation — efforts to shield American users from potential Chinese government influence have, at least temporarily, led to increased engagement with Chinese social media.
For now, millions of Americans seem willing to accept these risks, prioritizing the digital community over data privacy concerns.
