Before January 2025, most internet users in the United States probably had never heard the term “RedNote” before. The Chinese-based mobile application is one of the most popular social media applications among Chinese language users in China and beyond. Like Instagram, RedNote is a place where users share texts, pictures, and videos in posts discussing life, tips for travel, and the latest iPhones and entertainment news.
It was never expected that RedNote could become an internationally known mobile app. Yet in early January, possible concerns about the United States shutting down TikTok led to a massive exodus of TikTok users who felt disgruntled. Instead of revisiting traditional choices such as Instagram or X, some TikTok users and content creators surprisingly chose RedNote, a mobile application designed for Chinese language users, as their new base to explore the Internet.
New users to RedNote proudly call themselves “TikTok Refugees” and establish their presence on the app with a “Cat Tax”: Posting a picture or video clip of their cats on RedNote. On the new app, TikTok refugees openly talk about the hardships in their lives: high university tuition, issues in the American healthcare system, and the U.S. tech oligarchy, where they say life has become dominated by giant firms such as Meta, Google, and Amazon.
Despite government institutions, legislators, and independent research groups repeatedly warning users about data access concerns on Chinese-controlled mobile applications, individuals who joined RedNote show little concern for the key issue that led to TikTok’s service disruption in the United States. Instead, they intend to engage more in RedNote and some pledged to learn Mandarin to achieve that.
The influx of American users on RedNote also led to a major achievement not seen since Google left China in 2010. It became the first time for ordinary Chinese to be able to contact fellow internet users outside of the country. Previously, individuals in China had to use internet proxies and VPNs at the risk of facing criminal penalties. But in January 2025, Chinese internet users have no legal concerns as the former TikTok users crossed through the Chinese Great Firewall to accept another cyberspace with more surveillance, controls, and censorship.
RedNote became the unexpected winner in the drastic change in the U.S. social media realm. Since the week of January 12, RedNote has become a trending word on Google. Reuters reported that the app had reached 3.4 million daily active users in the United States, up from 700,000 in earlier reports. Yet for RedNote, it might be too early to celebrate this surprising victory.
Unlike TikTok, RedNote primarily operates in China. As a result, RedNote imposes strict content censorship on the posts visible on the platform. Discussions on politics are generally limited and hidden. Similar to the situations in other Chinese-controlled websites and mobile applications, users need to use jargon, memes, acronyms, and intentionally mistyped words or characters to express limited opinions on public affairs in China. The platform has a notorious record of limiting LGBTQ-related topics. Media reports suggest that some U.S. users have already seen their posts taken down by RedNote as they are deemed “too sensitive.”
The significant number of U.S. users entering the app led to some unplanned pressure for RedNote to fulfill its censorship requirements imposed by the Chinese cyberspace administration officials. After the first wave of user influx, RedNote was reported to be urgently hiring English-language content moderation employees. The job posting has no prior job experience requirements for the new hires and offers the recruits paid training. Reports also suggest that RedNote is developing features that segregate users based on their IP address to minimize its political and content moderation risks.
At the same time, RedNote did not completely give up the goal of potentially expanding further in the United States. The application updated its auto-translation feature, which could help American users navigate in a traditionally Chinese language platform.
To minimize its geopolitical risk, TikTok’s holding company ByteDance separated the global application from its Chinese version, Douyin, which is unavailable in other countries. In doing so, ByteDance sought to please political leaders in China and the rest of the world. However, such measures ultimately did not work. Despite obtaining temporary relief from President Donald Trump for 75 days, the company still faces the challenge of either selling or being banned in the United States after losing its appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court. In Canada, the federal government ordered the company to shut down its office while maintaining users’ access to the mobile application in November 2024. Up to April 2024, TikTok spent over $7 million in its largely failed lobbying work to keep the app alive.
For RedNote, its Chinese ownership and management show little difference from ByteDance. To survive in the United States, it will face the same, if not higher, levels of scrutiny on issues such as data privacy, intelligence collection, and political ties with the Chinese government. As of today, RedNote does not have an apparent answer or clear strategy to differentiate itself from ByteDance.
The “TikTok ban” passed by Congress last year, and signed into law by then-President Joe Biden, applies to more than just that single app. The law cites TikTok as a specific example, but it prohibits all “foreign adversary controlled application[s].” RedNote will experience a similar fate as TikTok unless the company makes huge changes in its share structures, operation strategies, and more importantly, its handling of the censorship requirements imposed by the Chinese government. While the company might not be interested in being involved in politics in China or the United States, RedNote should realize that its capability to generate and mobilize political movements in both countries would be a key point of conflict in an increasingly aggressive world.
