That's it! The “TikTok refugees” have arrived on their new social network. The very likely ban of the star application in the United States has led to a mass migration of its users to RedNote, another Chinese network where the rules are different.
Until then, the vast majority of RedNote users, real name Xiaohongshu, were Chinese. The massive arrival of American TikTokers has mechanically given rise to a cultural encounter via screens.
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“Signing up on RedNote and chatting with these people one-on-one for hours allowed me to discover a different side of China. It challenged my worldview.”Jeremy Fraga, a resident of Fort Worth, Texas, tells CNN. “We find that the Chinese are not so different from us», Adds Heather Roberts, American artist followed by 32,000 subscribers on TikTok. Convinced by his early experience, Jeremy Fraga affirms that he will«installer [sur RedNote]even if TikTok is ultimately not banned” in the United States.
To absorb this influx of new foreign accounts, RedNote, which already supports 300 million users, has launched a recruitment campaign. Job title: English content moderator. According to CNN, these hires aim to respond to the new challenge of RedNote, which must now “strike a balance between adhering to China’s strict content moderation rules while providing a positive experience for its new, non-Chinese-speaking users.”
The hunt for taboos
For some, the balance has not been found. If TikTok lets its users express themselves fairly freely, RedNote applies stricter rules. As elsewhere, violent content, pornography and hate speech are prohibited, but not only that. The emerging network is also looking at topics that concern, among other things, politics and sexuality.
-Many newcomers to the network have already faced its censorship. For example, a non-binary American person posted this message from their account: “Is it true that RedNote doesn’t like gay people?” A few hours later, the post was deleted.
Another user complains that RedNote censors his upper body in the photos he posts. A problem that he claims to have never encountered on TikTok or Instagram. “Why can’t I post pictures of my physique and abs?” he asked publicly. A Chinese user responded that his content was probably considered sexually suggestive and suggested that he cover his nipples to avoid being censored.
Fans of the Japanese animated series My Hero Academia are also surprised by the reception given to their publications on the new TikTok. Some of them were deleted by the platform, without explanation. The reason? Certain extracts from the manga, which refer to the history of the war in Japan, are controversial in China. The work has been subject to censorship since 2018.
Despite the controversies and the difficulties linked to recruiting moderators to manage the massive influx of Americans, RedNote welcomes its new users with wide open arms. “This is a cohort […] of curious users, open to exploring the other side of the digital firewall, and who consider the possibility of changing their minds about China and its people”explains to CNN Ivy Yang, Chinese technology analyst and founder of the consultancy firm Wavelet Strategy. According to her, more than an opportunity, this migration of American TikTokers to RedNote is a “great victory” for China.
