Few days to the threat of ban, TikTok users in the U.S. are migrating to a Chinese app called RedNote.
According to a group known as “TikTok refugees”, the new development has made RedNote the most downloaded app on Apple’s US App Store on Monday.
RedNote is a TikTok competitor popular with young people in China, Taiwan and other Mandarin-speaking populations.
It has about 300 million monthly users and looks like a combination of TikTok and Instagram. It allows users, mostly young urban women, to exchange lifestyle tips from dating to fashion.
Supreme Court justices are due to rule on a law that set a 19 January deadline for TikTok to either sell its US operations or face a ban in the country.
TikTok has repeatedly said that it will not sell its US business and its lawyers have warned that a ban will violate free speech protections for the platform’s 170 million users in the US.
RedNote, on the other hand, has embraced its new users. The topic “TikTok refugee” has 63,000 posts that instruct new users on how to use the app and basic Chinese phrases.
“TikTok refugee”, where new users are taught how to navigate the app and how to use basic Chinese phrases.
“To our Chinese hosts, thanks for having us – sorry in advance for the chaos,” a new US user wrote.
But like TikTok, there have also been reports of censorship on RedNote when it comes to criticism of the Chinese government.
In Taiwan, public officials are restricted from using RedNote due to alleged security risks of Chinese software.