The impending TikTok ban in the U.S. has prompted a mass migration of “refugee” content creators to alternative social media platforms – and a Chinese app named for Chairman Mao’s “Little Red Book” appears to be the most popular.
Shanghai-based Xiaohongshu, nicknamed RedNote in the U.S., catapulted to the top of the app store in the free apps section this week as social media users fled TikTok in anticipation of its shutdown on Sunday, Jan. 20.
In just two days, more than 700,000 new users joined Xiaohongshu, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
U.S. downloads of RedNote were up more than 200% year-over-year this week, and 194% from the week prior, according to estimates from app data research firm Sensor Tower, the report said.
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But with that surge in popularity comes a stern warning from one of the top China hawks in Congress, who fears the app’s explicit ties to China could endanger U.S. users.
“Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book was instrumental in China’s communist cultural revolution that led to the tragic deaths of tens of millions of Chinese citizens. Today, a Chinese app of the same name wants to be the next TikTok – complete with Chinese control,” House Select Committee on the CCP Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., told Fox Business.
What is RedNote?
An app store description calls Xiahongshu a “lifestyle platform that inspires people to discover and connect with a range of diverse lifestyles.” The app claims to have more than 300 million daily users and appears to function similar to Instagram or Pinterest, with users able to post text, images or short-form video content.
Founded as a venture capital startup in 2013, Xiahongshu is now widely regarded as the go-to search engine in China for recommendations on popular topics ranging from beauty, fashion, travel and food, according to Reuters.
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Users can participate in discussions, share each other’s posts, call each other and shop. The platform has recently made a big push into livestreamed sales.
There is no international version of the app, which is in Mandarin. It is owned and operated by Xingyin Information Technology, a Chinese company. While users have the option to change the app’s language, most of the content is in Mandarin.
Xiahongshu was co-founded by Miranda Qu, its current president, and Charlwin Mao, its CEO, in 2013 in Shanghai. Initailly called “Hong Kong Shopping Guide,” it was designed for Chinese tourists looking for recommendations outside the mainland, per Reuters.
Security Concerns
TikTok on Friday said its platform would “go dark” on Sunday after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a bipartisan law enacted last year that requires Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance to divest the app, citing its ties to the CCP.
Lawmakers have raised national security concerns that China could use the app to download user data or otherwise push certain state-backed content on U.S. users.
Moolenaar raised the same concerns about RedNote and suggested the law used to force ByteDance to divest from TikTok could be similarly applied to the platforms’ owners.
“Parents and social media creators should be aware that the CCP exploits PRC-based applications to surveil and censor Americans. The good news is that President Trump has the authority under the TikTok bill to force divestment of other CCP controlled applications that pose national security risks as well,” he said.
Xiahongshu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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TikTok content creators who have made the leap to Xiahongshu have warned other U.S. users to be wary of the platform’s strict content moderation policies and Chinese censorship.
“This is for my fellow TikTok refugees and Americans, behave on this app! You better behave because everyone in China is being so kind to us as we colonize their cutesy tootsy app just because our government sucks,” an American user named “Savannah” posted Wednesday, CBS News reported.
If the complaint about TikTok is that it collects too much user data, Xiahongshu has the same problem and it is arguably worse.
RedNote’s privacy policy states the platform collects a large amount of data including sensitive information such as users’ location via their IP address, browsing habits and more, Forbes reported.
The terms and conditions are written in Mandarin and English users have had difficulty translating them.
Additionally, Xiahongshu is subject to the same Chinese data laws as TikTok, which may grant CCP authorities access to user data but without the privacy protections required by U.S. law.
“The platform collects extensive personal data, including location, browsing activity, and device-specific information like IP addresses. It can also share this data with third-party service providers or government authorities, raising concerns about user privacy,” Adrianus Warmenhoven, cybersecurity expert at NordVPN, told Forbes.
Even so, some TikTok users have dismissed these concerns. Lifestyle content creator Kayla Murphy, who has more than 20,000 followers on TikTok, told CT Insider she is not worried about Chinese data collection.
“Personally, I’m not worried. I live a very honest and open life, and I don’t feel like I have anything to hide. If the governments of China or the U.S. want to know that I’m a 28-year-old woman who loves travel, food, and my cat, Wednesday, so be it,” Murphy said. “My bigger concerns lie with systemic issues like healthcare and the economy.”
Murphy said she uses Google Translate to add Mandarin captions to her videos on RedNote so Chinese users can follow her content.
“One of my most liked posts, which features my cat, Wednesday, included a simple introduction in both English and Chinese,” Murphy told the outlet. “Since most of my content focuses on visual storytelling – like travel and lifestyle – I think it will naturally transcend language barriers.”
Murphy said she would not be surprised if RedNote “becomes the next target in the U.S. government’s battle with social media platforms.”
“It feels like a game of whack-a-mole,” she said, “but the youth will always find a way to adapt.”
Fox Business Network’s Chase Williams and Reuters contributed to this report.
