Social media US TikTok users move to alternative Chinese platform
A few days before a planned ban of Tiktok from the app stores of major US companies, US users have started to move. Users switched to the Chinese platform Xiaohongshu.
14.01.2025, 02:50
SDA
The Xiaohongshu network, which is also known by the English name Red Note, shot to the top of the list of downloaded applications in the US tech giant Apple's app store on Monday. Xiaohongshu is almost entirely in Mandarin, but that doesn't seem to be stopping interested parties in the US.
US law requires Tiktok's Chinese parent company Bytedance to sell the service. The law gives Bytedance a deadline of January 19 to sell Tiktok in the US. Otherwise, the video platform will be banned from the app stores of US companies Apple and Google.
Accusation of espionage
US authorities accuse Bytedance of misusing the app in the service of the Chinese government to spy on users, which the video platform denies. Tiktok is particularly popular with young people and has around 170 million users in the US alone.
"Oh, you don't want the Chinese to have our very sensitive personal data?" asked influencer Jen Hamilton sarcastically in a Tiktok video for her 3.9 million followers, in which she advertised her move to Xiaohongsh. "Come over," she urged the other "Tiktok refugees".
Tiktok had filed an objection to the US law. At a hearing before the US Supreme Court on Friday, a majority of the nine judges indicated their approval of the Chinese parent company Bytedance being forced to sell the video platform. US President-elect Donald Trump had asked the Supreme Court in December to suspend the law against Tiktok in order to find a political solution.
