The US government will officially ban TikTok on Sunday, January 19, unless the US Supreme Court decides to do something to stop it in last minute decision. The threatened ban has caused a large number of TikTokers to migrate to a new Chinese video sharing app called Xiaohongshu—Red note or the Red Book, in English — as a general screw-up of the American ruling class. And with RedNote holding onto the top spot on the Apple App Store in the US for the second day, it’s fascinating to watch.
It’s unclear whether Americans will actually stay on RedNote long-term, especially if TikTok is saved by a successful sale to an American company or if President-elect Donald Trump somehow intervenes. A Bloomberg report that Elon Musk may try to buy TikTok was quickly shot down by TikTok on Monday night. But it’s really interesting to see American and Chinese users discuss switching to RedNote in very techno-utopian terms.
Internet users in the US and China have been separated by a vast digital divide for so long that RedNote users, both old and new, are talking about how this finally feels like an opportunity for real cultural exchange between average citizens of the two countries. Because back in the 1990s, the idea of a “global village,” where everyone could communicate freely and peacefully around the world, was a big part of humanity’s technological dream for the future. But things like China’s Great Firewall and America’s surveillance apparatus put a damper on that vision.
“Seeing TikTok refugees pouring into red notes is so nostalgic for me,” one user on RedNote called Zoey he said in the video. “It reminds me of the early 2000s when the Internet first made the global village possible.”
Zoey compared it to what people in the 20th century often did to corresponda common way of communicating with random people you didn’t know on the other side of the world. Physical letters were exchanged through postal services, often coordinated through schools, so that children could practice their language and literacy skills while learning about different cultures. Zoey said that her exercise at school was just pretending that she and her fellow students were actually writing to a friend, but the idea was the same.
“I remember then. In China, when I was little, when I first started learning English, we would practice writing by pretending there was a friend from the United States or Great Britain,” Zoey said. “And we write them in English. It’s very similar to what’s happening at Red Note right now.”
Zoey admits it’s “a bit chaotic” but says people are generally very curious about each other.
“It’s almost magical that the will to connect and come together can still cross so many boundaries, especially in an age where the internet is so fragmented and algorithms have built really powerful echo chambers that prevent people from understanding each other,” Zoey says, going on to call it very magical.
Zoey no longer has to pretend she’s texting a friend. At least not for now. But Zoey knows that it could be an illusion and that this brief moment could be gone very soon.
“Maybe I’m over-romanticizing this, but it’s been so long since I’ve felt this way. Like, people can actually connect and people are genuinely interested and curious about each other,” Zoey said. “I don’t know how long this moment will last. I’m not an optimistic person, but I really hope this can stay a little longer.”
Other English-speaking users based in China spoke of their mixed feelings at seeing the American influx to the app. One creator said she was the host of TikTok Live and would come to RedNote (or the Red Book, as she called it) to complain about Americans she met on TikTok.
“Red Book is also a place where I can talk about my American customers behind their backs. So I was wondering where to post these things now,” jokes the user.
The user also encouraged Americans to start learning Mandarin, a common sentiment that often appears among US-based users who try the site.
But it’s not all serious discussion, of course. There are countless jokes on RedNote about America’s rise in interest. Many users joked to be spies on TikTok and want to continue their spying as more US users switch to Red Note. This kind of joke is also very common among Americans on TikTok in recent days and weeks.
Other longtime RedNote users who spoke to Americans welcomed the new users but offered advice on everything from ignoring trolls to using Mandarin if you can.
“At the end of the day, we’re not that different,” one RedNote user said in english about the cultural divide between American and Chinese users. But that same user also spoke in coded language about the “rules” of RedNote.
“Yes, there are rules here,” says the user. “The place is quite cold, but it is not without rules. To be honest, I don’t know much about it, because I don’t really have to, if you know what I mean.”
The user goes on to say that “things you should say” in the United States “you probably shouldn’t say here either.” The user continues, “See what I’m trying to say?” while encouraging Americans to “just use common sense.”
Red Note is not a utopia from the perspective of any American who cares about the ideals of liberal democracy and free speech. The app operates under the rules of the Chinese government, which means you won’t find any criticism of the Communist Party. And China is not a utopia for LGBT people. In recent years we have seen a crushing about LGBT advocacy groups in Beijing.
The only area where Americans can find more leeway is on subjects like Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December. Social networks like TikTok are playing whack-a-mole to suppress content celebrated by Mangione but there seem to be no such restrictions on Red Note.
One of the funnier realizations of Americans on TikTok in recent days is that other English-speaking creators they may enjoy around the world don’t necessarily get off the platform. As one US user called Mystery of Kyle joked about UK users staying on the platform, saying“We will no longer be able to mock each other. What will you do without us?”
“Now it will literally be a British app. And there aren’t many of you,” he continued. “They are all confined within a restricted area with a terrible kitchen. What will you do? Are we talking about canned fish? There is a type called canned fish reviews. He’ll probably be the number one creator on this app when we’re gone.”
The utopian ideals of the global online village have always been romanticized. The US intelligence community literally helped build the Internet from its earliest days 1960s and 70sand the NSA and CIA have been spying on him ever since. The Internet was a creation of the Cold War, and the borders of the Web were set along those same Cold Warrior battle lines. After all, the first Internet node outside the US was set up in Norway for surveillance Soviet nuclear tests.
China, while late to the Internet fun, has had a government that has been spying on the Internet for almost as long as Americans, rounding up and censoring its population by blocking access to American websites for decades. And now it’s the Americans’ turn to learn about serious forms of censorship by banning TikTok.
If there is a critical mass of Americans on RedNote in a few weeks, the US government could very well take steps to ban the app under the guise of “national security” concerns. But with Trump taking office on Monday, the new ban on the Chinese-owned app is unlikely to make headlines. With everything Trump promised to do on day one — from mass deportations to a serious crackdown on political opponents — another app to be banned will be every other Monday in America.