Angry concerning the prospect of a probable U.S. authorities ban on the social media platform TikTok that would come inside days, American customers have flocked to a different Chinese-owned app in droves, many with a defiant message: “Take my data!”
TikTok has turn into one other battleground showcasing China-U.S. tensions, with President Joe Biden’s administration accusing the app of permitting Beijing to gather knowledge and spy on customers – claims denied by China and TikTok’s proprietor ByteDance.
Last yr, the U.S. handed a regulation forcing ByteDance to both promote the platform or shut it down by Jan. 19.
With that deadline looming, Xiaohongshu – a lifestyle-focussed Instagram-meets-Pinterest different – surged to the highest of the Apple App Store downloads on Monday.
The hashtag “tiktokrefugee” had greater than 100 million views by Tuesday night.
“They are trying to ban TikTok because they said China is stealing information. They don’t ban any American company from stealing our information,” person penguinpepperpia, who has greater than 264,000 TikTok followers, informed Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The content material creator downloaded Xiaohongshu quite than return to U.S. platforms similar to Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, which they characterised as apps for “older people” that additionally “steal your personal information and sell it to other companies.”
“That is why many Americans don’t care anymore and we would rather let China have our information,” stated the person.
Other “refugees” shared related sentiments.
New Xiaohongshu person Adham stated in a video posted on Monday: “I know our government is a little bit racist, but Chinese people, I love you guys. I don’t care if you take my data. Take it.”
‘Deliciously ironical’
The phenomenon confirmed how “foolish” the TikTok ban was, Milton Mueller, a professor on the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy who filed a quick opposing the ban to the U.S. Supreme Court, informed AFP.
“It is deliciously ironical that the threat of a ban is backfiring so quickly, even before it is put into place,” he stated.
“It does seem as if the TikTok ban is pushing users toward other apps that have a much less clear division between the Chinese Communist Party and the app itself,” Duke University’s Robyn Caplan stated.
Neither Xiaohongshu or ByteDance commented on the state of affairs when requested.
What the phenomenon confirmed was that the Biden administration’s technique towards Chinese expertise of “small yard, high fence” was not efficient, stated Meng Bingchun of the London School of Economics (LSE).
“The yard keeps getting bigger, and the fence is leaky,” Meng stated.
“Worse still, in this case, those living within the fence can be migratory in the digital space.”
Short-term response?
Until Monday, Xiaohongshu – or “RedNote” in English – was in style primarily amongst Chinese-speaking customers.
It boasted 300 million month-to-month lively customers on the finish of 2023.
Unlike TikTok’s sister app, Douyin or the micro-blogging website Weibo, Xiaohongshu skews closely towards life-style content material.
It is seen as dealing with comparatively much less censorship than different platforms: customers will be discovered posting LGBTQ content material and discussing the deserves of girls remaining single, matters typically thought-about delicate in China.
For “native” Xiaohongshu customers on Monday, the inflow of Americans was a head-scratcher but in addition supplied an surprising alternative for cultural alternate.
Some even requested for assist with English homework.
In public group chats on the platform, new customers requested for translations of slang phrases, in addition to key phrases to seek for content material they needed.
“It’s funny and ironic that the Americans and the Chinese are meeting online under the circumstance that the U.S. government is banning TikTok … similar to what the Chinese government has been doing for ages to American apps,” 26-year-old Amanda Zhang informed AFP.
The part-time pet content material creator, who research within the U.S., stated she was frightened the U.S. authorities may transfer to ban Xiaohongshu too if it gained sufficient traction.
It stays unclear what the long-term implications of the shift will likely be.
Xiaohongshu’s essential problem in retaining these new customers is translation, Caplan stated.
LSE’s Meng added: “My hunch is that what we’re witnessing now could be extra of a short-term response than a long-term development.
“The question now is whether there will be a critical mass of these refugees to achieve the desired network effect for the platform and whether Xiaohongshu will respond quickly enough to harness the new users.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com