Can American TikTok users survive on China’s RedNote

TikTok has reached its dramatic conclusion. A large number of defiant U.S. TikTok users have blocked in another Chinese app, Xiaohongshu or Little Red Book, in droves, seeking refuge. Is this massive influx of Americans into Chinese apps a blessing or a curse to the Chinese government? We'll find out. Refugees are so unhinged and I am living for it. Our government is out of their mind if they think we're going to stand for this TikTok ban. We're just going to go to a new Chinese app and here we are. I cannot stand all of the fear mongering that is going on with the Chinese are stealing our data. Who cares? I don't care. I will gladly give my data to the Chinese because guess what? The Chinese have been here for us since day one. I will gladly sit here and eat my vegetables out of my bowl that was made in China while wearing my clothes that were made in China while sitting on my bed that was made in China. I have other important things to worry about. I still have to pay my rent. I don't give a shit what ******* app I'm using. If it's made by China, that's awesome. Everyone on this app has been so, so kind, unlike our government who wants to take away our freedom of speech. So I will gladly stay here. Thank you everyone for being so kind. Our United States government has betrayed us. They're taking away our free speech platform because they don't want us talking together. TikTok has changed people's lives for the better. It's brought communities together, people in need, people that's wanted to kill themselves. Use TikTok and have found hope and have found peace with the community that protects and helps each other out. Thank you for letting us join the Red Book, Red Note. We appreciate it. Red Book's gaining traffic and reputation inadvertently provided the Chinese government and its cyberspace administration with an excellent opportunity to conduct united front work on these Americans. One Chinese media, it's called Guancha or Observer, called it an incredible chemical reaction that brings Chinese and American people together in an unprecedented way. So from the Chinese government's perspective, I mean, they've been struggling to pivot Sino-US relations away from hostility. This sudden development feels like a romanticized friendship from the people. The party propaganda system suddenly got excited. China Daily jokingly asked its Chinese users, since they are here, they are one of us, what Chinese content would you recommend to our American friends? So why the panic? Red Book is scrambling to find ways to moderate English content and develop translation tools. The company is focusing on two things. The first is they're urgently recruiting English content moderators who play the role of internet police. So leaked images show the company recently announced an urgent hiring campaign for English content moderators to strengthen its moderation team, which is based in Wuhan. This job is an in-person job, so you cannot do it online. So the second priority is to develop a blocking and isolation feature in the app. So insiders review that the app is working on a feature to block or isolate content between Chinese and overseas IP addresses. They want to build an invisible wall to separate Chinese and foreign users to reduce their interactions by about 80%. So hiring English content moderators and dividing and blocking foreign users highlight the Chinese government's fear of an influx of American users. So now let me talk a little bit about the app. So Red Book was a lifestyle shopping type of platform, and it's not focused on politics. However, the platform enforces censorship far more strictly than Weibo, WeChat, and TikTok. I mean, the Chinese version of TikTok, which is Douyin, under the stringent control of the CCP. So in July 22nd, an internal censorship guideline used by Red Book was leaked. The 143-page document outlined how the social media platform monitored public opinions and accumulates case studies to extract sensitive keywords. And there is a section in the report called Special Project for Public Opinion Review on Leader No. 1. The project derives its name from the app's internal term for referring to Xi Jinping as Leader No. 1. Over a two-month period, their censorship team identified 564 sensitive keywords related to Xi Jinping. So here are some words. I mean, some are, you know, like, for example, I'm a soccer fan. That's a sensitive word. There's just so many, if you really look at it, even like, raise your hand if you disagree. None, none. That's a sensitive word. Like, general secretary visits my house, full emperor, sniper deployment, the clown who became emperor, unlimited re-election, even Liang Jiahe aristocrat, and a beast chairman. Now, the Red Book also has some very strange rules, like prohibiting visuals showing funerals and prohibiting the use of the word most. So you cannot say the most beautiful. So the word most is banned. Nobody knows where these rules came from, but they do exist. Americans have quickly experienced the app's extreme censorship. An American posted this, a photoshopped image of Mao Zedong and LeBron James, with the caption saying, I love you, grandpa. And the Chinese users warned him, you'll get banned, bro. That's what they wrote. And the user's account is now unsearchable. I think it's been taken down. And here's another American asking Chinese users, what does this mean? After being told that his post is under review for the next 48 hours. And the Chinese replied, welcome to 1984, my friend. And then this TikTok refugee, someone I think did this, said, hello, Chinese friend, glad to meet you on day one. And then on day two, his post was deleted by the moderator after he said, let's talk about Ukraine. And then on day three, his account was suspended after he expressed his opinion on gay and lesbian issues. And this woman was clueless why her account was locked due to violation of community rules. She asked, what does this mean? And the Chinese text said that her language has caused discomfort in others. So while the CCP seeks to export its ideology, it dreads ideological imports. So the influx of American netizens into a Chinese app has objectively created a breach in the Chinese Great Firewall. So on the one hand, the CCP can use its app to brainwash Americans. But on the other hand, it fears that its people will be subject to Americans' counter-brainwashing because the two groups will be interacting. So first, it's impossible for American users to avoid discussing politics, even though we think it's not political, from the Chinese perspective, it's political. So their opposition to the TikTok ban and their retaliatory migration to Redbook are fundamentally rooted in political motives. And secondly, from the CCP's perspective, any content discussed by American users could be interpreted as part of a quiet infiltration of Western influence or a color revolution. Many topics that Americans take for granted as mundane or part of everyday life may be seen by the CCP as seeds of democratic thinking. So for example, like I said, a statement like, we came to Redbook to protest against the government's suppression of free speech, that's a threatening political ideological statement that stings the ears of CCP leaders. Another example I want to show you is this conversation. So a Chinese asked American construction worker how much money he makes. And so the American replied, he said, as a union member, I earn $50 an hour plus benefits, about $1,200 a week. This harmless, everyday conversation could lead to discussions about workers forming unions, it could lead to discussions about workers' rights. It also gives Chinese people a realistic view of wealth and income in the US. As one Chinese commented, wow, that it takes me a month to make what you make in a day. So you see, any information the Americans share, even a photo of supermarket prices could be interpreted by the CCP as incitement of dissatisfaction or destabilization. So one Chinese netizen wrote on X, he said, American TikTok fans launched a counter offensive, nearly driving the Chinese regime to its grave. It feels like the Americans are climbing over the Great Firewall to stir up trouble in China. How wonderful. And on a single day this week, the app experienced an influx of nearly 3 million US users, increasing its daily active users in the US from fewer than 700,000 to approximately 3.4 million. So these 3.4 million Americans interacting with Chinese on a daily basis is a great threat to the CCP regime.