Cute cats. Match checks. Journey vlogs. Luigi Mangione latte artwork. Individuals who downloaded RedNote noticed all of it this week, as they fled to the Chinese language social media app prematurely of an imminent (or not ) TikTok ban.
English language content material has flooded RedNote, whose default language is Mandarin, with Individuals posting introductions to themselves and kicking off cross-cultural discussions: How a lot do you pay for groceries? What Chinese language slang do I have to know? Do you’ve gotten any opinions in regards to the state of Ohio?
Qian Huang, a professor on the College of Groningen within the Netherlands who research Asian youth and digital tradition, mentioned that she initially downloaded RedNote to maintain up with Chinese language traits. “However this week, I wakened and my feed was not the standard feed anymore,” Huang mentioned. “It was all English content material. That was a little bit of a bizarre feeling for me.”
Regardless of issues about information privateness, the app shot to primary in US app shops on Tuesday, with greater than half one million downloads from new customers, after a supreme court docket listening to on TikTok’s future final week. The tech reporter Ryan Broderick famous on his Rubbish Day e-newsletter that Black TikTok magnificence influencers had seen RedNote’s potential for make-up tutorials and trend-spotting earlier than the listening to.
RedNote is primarily a video-sharing app, although customers may also share photograph galleries accompanied by inquiries to spur dialogue within the feedback. Lots of the content material seems much like what you’d discover on Instagram’s Discover web page: posts from Chinese language influencers and common folks about what they eat in a day, or how they train, or what they’re sporting. The app’s Chinese language identify, Xiaohongshu, interprets to “little crimson ebook”, a reference to a group of the Chinese language communist chief Mao Zedong’s favourite sayings.
Very like TikTok’s well-known scroll, RedNote has “a really particular algorithm, the place what you see may be very a lot tailor-made to your style”, based on Huang. She additionally mentioned the app places a heavy emphasis on e-commerce, with embedded purchasing choices that cater to a largely feminine viewers. Prior to now two years, the Shanghai-based startup that owns RedNote has made steps to achieve male customers.
In China, a digital firewall blocks most web customers from overseas serps and social media websites like Google, Fb and WhatsApp. Social media is strictly regulated, and the federal government has focused sure bloggers and their followers for making essential or dissenting feedback. New RedNote customers might really feel that the upcoming US TikTok ban is corresponding to Chinese language authorities censorship (although calling themselves “TikTok refugees” definitely speaks to a uniquely American aptitude for the dramatic).
Whereas China has its personal model of the TikTok app, known as Douyin, RedNote is notable in that the app is unified moderately than break up into two variations; Chinese language customers intermingle with customers from the remainder of the world. Jiali Fan, a PhD candidate on the College of Cambridge who research RedNote, mentioned that many longtime customers of the app really feel that is their first time interacting with Individuals on-line.
“Chinese language folks all the time really feel like they dwell in the one nation that has actually restricted web areas,” Fan mentioned. “Now, Individuals are experiencing the identical with [the TikTok ban], so now we will all relate, all of us have the identical struggles and issues.”
In a single in style meme, Chinese language customers demand a cat or canine “tax”, which means cute pet pictures, from new American customers. Chinese language teenagers have requested Individuals for assist with their English homework. Influencers give Mandarin classes for translating important social media slang reminiscent of “Woman, you look so gorgeous” or “lmaoooooooooo”.
In a single early fumble, a Shanghai-born man named Jerry, who now lives in Vancouver, was misidentified because the app’s CEO by an American reporter after he posted a pleasant welcome video to his RedNote followers. Jerry needed to publish one other video clarifying that he’s, the truth is, “simply one other regular man”.
Luigi Mangione, who has been charged with homicide within the taking pictures of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and pleaded not responsible, can also be a scorching subject on the app. Chinese language influencers cosplay as Mangione in court docket, or publish “make-up tutorials” for emulate his mug shot. There are Luigi fan edits, Luigi latte artwork and explainers on due course of from individuals who suppose he’s been subjected to an unfair trial by the media.
“That’s simply because he seems good,” Fan mentioned, echoing the canonization by some within the US who see Mangione as a people hero. “If you wish to be well-known on Xiahongshu, you need to be lovely. It’s simply how the algorithm works.”
A lot of the humor on RedNote comes from Chinese language influencers evenly roasting Individuals whereas welcoming them to the app. “Don’t fear, we’re not just like the Individuals. We won’t inform you to return to your personal nation,” Yvonne Du, a longtime influencer with greater than 650,000 followers on the app, mentioned in English in a video.
Different customers joke about being “Chinese language spies”, riffing on issues from US politicians in regards to the Chinese language authorities utilizing TikTok to entry Individuals’ information. Anti-TikTok politicians most likely gained’t like RedNote both; cybersecurity specialists say the app collects intensive private information, which it will possibly share with third-party platforms or the Chinese language authorities.
“A significant crimson flag is the app’s lack of transparency – its phrases and circumstances are primarily in Mandarin, leaving non-Chinese language-speaking customers unclear about what information is collected and the way it’s used,” mentioned the cybersecurity knowledgeable Adrianus Warmenhoven of NordVPN in an announcement. “Past privateness, there are issues about content material censorship. RedNote’s content material moderation insurance policies might align with Chinese language authorities requirements, probably stifling free speech and exposing customers to biased data.”
One nameless US official instructed CBS Information that RedNote may face the identical restrictions as TikTok does until it divests from a Chinese language-owned firm.
It appears that evidently most interactions between Individuals and Chinese language customers thus far have been inquisitive and mutually respectful. “That is the primary time lots of the Chinese language web has been uncovered to a worldwide viewers to some extent,” Fan mentioned. “Individuals are feeling very enthusiastic about this type of direct and unfiltered communication. But additionally, we don’t understand how lengthy this can final, or what authorities will make the transfer to do one thing about it. We simply should take pleasure in it proper now.”
