One of the themes that has defined 2025 so far has been the complicated fate of TikTok.
The popular social media platform has been caught in the crosshairs of severe legal scrutiny. The United States Supreme Court has ruled in favor of banning it in the U.S. Even after President Donald Trump asked for the ban to be delayed, TikTok users have flocked to a new platform that offers a similar experience.
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Some experts speculated that the TikTok ban could be a catalyst for companies such as Meta Platforms (META) , which owns Facebook and Instagram. But so far, a new social media app, also owned by a Chinese company, has surged in popularity as Americans seek to remain close to the platform they know.
However, even as users flock to the new platform, it is becoming increasingly clear that these similarities may cause concern.
The new TikTok alternative isn’t all fun and games
As the fate of TikTok has hung in the balance recently, one question has been on many people’s minds: what is the best alternative platform to TikTok?
While popular names like Instagram and Snapchat dominated conversations, a new name started picking up traction. Rednote or ‘Xiaohongshu’ is a Chinese owned social media platform that seems to closely mirror TikTok in terms of user experience, providing short reels powered by an algorithm that makes close recommendations.
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Although TikTok is back to being available in the U.S., at least temporarily, Rednote seems to have taken off and established itself in the social media space. Recent data shows that “More than 3 million US users have signed up amid the threat of the ban on TikTok.”
However, this doesn’t mean that the new platform doesn’t come without its own set of risks. In fact, according to one expert, it may not be different at all, in terms of the dangers that using this type of Chinese technology can pose for users.
Jason Alan Snyder, a Futurologist and AI technologist recently sat down with TheStreet to discuss Rednote and certain negative aspects of the app that new users may not be aware of.
Snyder recently described Rednote as a “tightly controlled platform that exports censorship, reshapes youth culture, and quietly undermines the democratic ideals its community takes for granted.” But as it turns out, its dangers go beyond data privacy and Chinese government concerns.
While discussing the dangers of both platforms, Snyder highlights the artificial intelligence (AI) models that power them, which he sees as being used for
“What happens with these advanced AI models, and the way that they power them is that they’re not just personalizing content, but they can also predict and manipulate behavior, [which] makes people vulnerable to misinformation, exploitation, and arguably, even addiction.”
In this case, according to Snyder, that means promoting harmful content, often centering around biases. Jewish news outlet The Forward recently reported that antisemitic content on Rednote has been high.
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Snyder says that many of these problems can be attributed to the AI models behind each platform. “The AI-driven filters and content curation perpetuate all kinds of misinformation and all sorts of other harmful [social] trends,” he states.
A day of reckoning for social media is coming
The potential dangers posed by both the addictive nature of TikTok’s algorithm and its links to the Chinese government are far from news. Americans have known about them for years but given the app’s immense popularity in the U.S., it seems apparent that the people who use it are willing to take the risk.
Snyder predicts that an ultimate day of reckoning for social media users will come but he finds it hard to pinpoint exactly when that will be.
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“The dangers are buried in these like long, unreadable terms and conditions, and people rarely understand those trade-offs they’re making with their data, ” he notes. “And most people don’t understand how AI works or how it can even exploit their data.”
In his view, people have spent years rationalizing the tracking of their data and as such, may be desensitized to this dangerous trend, paving the way for a new TikTok alternative to spring up with few obstacles.
“Most people don’t realize the full value of their data or the risks of giving it away, because to them, [it] is to trade off free access to a fun app or service in exchange for some anonymous information,” he says.
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