With just days to go until a potential nationwide ban on TikTok in the US, a Chinese social media app has suddenly flown to the top of the app store charts.
Seemingly overnight, RedNote became the most downloaded app on the Apple app store and has reached over 10 million downloads on the Google Play store.
Xiaohongshu, literally translated as “Little Red Book”, already has millions of users in China, Taiwan and other Mandarin-speaking regions, but was previously a little known name in the Western world.
Its sudden surge in popularity in the West appears to be in backlash to US lawmakers’ attempts to impose a ban on TikTok that is linked to security fears, which, pending talks with its China-based owner Bytedance, is expected to come into force on Sunday.
This has led to a surge in self-proclaimed “TikTok refugees” introducing themselves on the RedNote platform, which experts told Yahoo News has raised privacy concerns.
The app has also flown to the top of the UK app download chart, despite there being no impending ban on TikTok this side of the pond.
What is RedNote?
RedNote has been described as a TikTok alternative, but it functions like a cross between Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest.
Launched in 2013, it is one of the most popular apps in China, boasts over 300 million monthly active users and, according to Newsweek, is valued at over $3bn (£2.5bn).
Similar to TikTok, RedNote has a focus on short-form video content, but it also allows users to shop online, review products, share pictures and exchange lifestyle tips.
RedNote has said the translation of Xiaohongshu, “Little Red Book” is not a reference to the book of quotations by Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong.
As one might expect of a social media app based in the People’s Republic, however, RedNote is heavily censored and, unlike TikTok, has a largely apolitical community. Users have also left reviews saying they’ve been banned from the platform for unclear reasons.
In Taiwan, public officials are restricted from using RedNote due to alleged security risks, the BBC reports.
Why are people downloading it?
The sudden migration to RedNote could be seen as an act of rebellion against the US’s proposed ban on TikTok.
One TikToker said: “If anyone asks you why you switched to RedNote, tell them that since the United States is using our government and our laws in order to censor us and destroy our small businesses and our community under the guise of preventing Chinese interference with our data.
“That we have turned to RedNote… for guidance and support and community going forward, in a time where our country and our government and our laws have failed us as citizens. Let them know that our generation won’t fall for red scare propaganda.”
The US government is moving to ban TikTok unless its China-based parent company ByteDance agrees to sell its American operations, over concerns the app’s 170 million US users’ data can be accessed by the Chinese state – a claim Bytedance denies.
While there are no current plans to ban TikTok in the UK, British social media users have nonetheless followed the trend in the US, with RedNote currently at the top of the UK Apple app store.
When is TikTok being banned in the US?
The US Supreme Court is expected to uphold a bill passed by Congress in April 2024 giving ByteDance nine months to find a US buyer or else cease its operations in the country.
President-elect Donald Trump has asked the court to delay implementation of the law, arguing he should have time after taking office on 20 January to pursue a “political resolution” to the issue.
On Monday two Democratic lawmakers also urged Congress and president Joe Biden to extend the current deadline of Sunday 19 January.
President-elect Donald Trump has asked for a delay of the TikTok ban in order to find another solution. (Reuters)
Senator Edward Markey said he planned to introduce legislation to delay the deadline, adding: “A ban would dismantle a one-of-a-kind informational and cultural ecosystem, silencing millions in the process.
“A TikTok ban would impose serious consequences on millions of Americans who depend on the app for social connections and their economic livelihood. We cannot allow that to happen.”
The Supreme Court held arguments on Friday on Tiktok and ByteDance’s challenge to the law. A lawyer for the companies, Noel Francisco, said it would be impossible to complete a sale by the current deadline.
Forbes reports that the Supreme Court could rule on TikTok’s future in the US as early as Wednesday.
Does China own RedNote?
RedNote is owned by Chinese company Xingyin Information Technology Co Ltd, which is based in Shanghai.
While the company is not state-owned, the Chinese state has significant influence over its country’s tech companies.
“For example, the adoption of the National Intelligence Law in 2017 requires all firms in China to accede to government demands to provide information and data as authorities deem necessary to protect China’s national security,” according to China research organisation Big Data China.
“It has also meant using carrots, such as providing industrial policy opportunities to private firms, and sticks, such as the regulatory crackdown on private Internet firms that started in late 2018 and recently concluded.”
Is RedNote safe?
Some not so eager to jump on the RedNote bandwagon have raised concerns about its terms of service.
Its terms of service say the company can use your data without authorisation when it is “necessary for the performance of statutory duties or obligations”.
RedNote can use your data to “carry out news reporting and supervision by public opinion for the public interest” and in “other circumstances provided by laws and regulations”, which arguably leaves a lot of wiggle room.
Regarding the app’s Skin Test or Makeup Trial functions, RedNote does say: “Please be aware that the above facial recognition information directly relates to your personal and property safety, so you should consider carefully when providing the above facial recognition information to us.
“We will only collect and process the above facial recognition information for the purpose of providing the Skin Test function and Makeup Trial function.”
Cybersecurity expers have weighed in on how safe they think RedNote is. (Getty Images)
“The app may share data with third parties for advertisement without user consent or such consent requirements have not been stated in proper or clear way,” Muhammad Ajmal Azad, a senior lecturer in cybersecurity told Yahoo News.
“Rednote can have access to different sensors like GPS, audio, video, energy, and scrolling patterns which can lead to profiling and unwanted surveillance,” he added.
Dominic Holden, director in the dispute resolution department at London law firm Lawrence Stephens said that as a Chinese company, RedNote raises the same privacy and data concerns that led to TikTok’s possible ban”.
Digital safety expert for privacy and data breach software company Yaron Litwin said that RedNote is “relatively unknown” in the West and should be “approached with caution”.
John Jackson, founder of fraud protection platform Hitprobe, added that RedNote “doesn’t have the same level of child protection that many other apps are starting to roll out, describing it as an “unsafe platform for young people to use”.
Lucy Finlay, director of secure behaviour and analytics at ThinkCyber Security, said some of the “tongue-in-cheek interactions” between new and existing users “suggests that people will continue to use these apps regardless, even making jokes about their data being collected and used”.
“Perhaps this is due to the principal demographic, Gen Z, using them being less concerned about data theft and possibly seeing it as a foregone conclusion for using these sorts of apps.
“As a result, the governmental efforts to “protect” data through this landmark ruling on TikTok are unintentionally backfiring amongst the people on the ground flocking to another app”.