USA: Americans have started flocking to the Chinese app Xiaohongshu, also known as Red Note in English, as the TikTok ban in the United States looms just days away from its Jan 19 shutdown.
According to AFP News, yesterday, the app shot to the top of the Apple App Store charts, as users were drawn to its Instagram-Pinterest layout, with TikTok’s future uncertain.
Influencer Jen Hamilton, who has 3.9 million followers on TikTok, asked sarcastically in a video, “Oh, you don’t want the Chinese to have our very sensitive personal data? Oh, we will drop it off directly,” while pointing at the Red Note app at the top of Apple App Store charts.
“Come on over,” she added, inviting her fellow “TikTok refugees” to join her on Xiaohongshu.
In the video, she even shared that a user had changed their username to a social security number to “get promoted faster” in the eyes of alleged spies.
TikTok has about 170 million users in the US.
Meanwhile, as US “TikTok refugees” flee to Chinese alternative app Xiaohongshu, Bloomberg reported that Chinese officials are exploring the possibility of Elon Musk’s company X (formerly Twitter) taking over TikTok in the event that the app is banned.
Sources familiar with the situation said Beijing officials strongly prefer the company to remain under parent company ByteDance. The company is appealing the ban to the US Supreme Court, but justices indicated on Jan 10 that they are likely to uphold the law.
Senior Chinese officials have already started discussing backup plans for TikTok, including potential strategies for dealing with the Trump administration, with one option involving Mr Musk, the sources said.
According to the sources, a potential deal with one of Trump’s close allies holds some appeal to the Chinese government, which is expected to influence whether TikTok is sold.
One option discussed involved Mr Musk’s X taking control of TikTok US and running both businesses together. However, sources said that officials have yet to reach a consensus on the matter, and discussions are still in the early stages.
In April last year, Mr Musk wrote on X, saying, “In my opinion, TikTok should not be banned in the USA, even though such a ban may benefit the X platform. Doing so would be contrary to freedom of speech and expression. It is not what America stands for.”
Mr Musk, ByteDance and TikTok have not yet commented on the matter. /TISG
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Featured image by Depositphotos
