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submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by Sagittarii@lemm.ee to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

Chinese social media app RedNote, known in China as Xiaohongshu, gained nearly 3 million U.S. users in one day earlier this week as a flood of self-proclaimed "TikTok Refugees" joined, according to new data from analytics firm Similarweb.

The Chinese-language app had about 3.4 million daily active users across both iOS and Android devices in the United States as of Monday, up from fewer than 700,000 the day prior, and around 300,000 the week prior, according to the Similarweb estimate.

The influx of users has been driven by a looming U.S. ban on TikTok, used by 170 million Americans, on national security concerns.

The data suggests an even larger shift to RedNote by U.S. users this week than was previously known, explaining its dramatic rise to the top of U.S. app store download rankings. Reuters reported on Tuesday that more than 700,000 new users had joined the app in only two days.

Meanwhile, U.S. usage of TikTok declined ahead of the ban, down 2.1% week over week to about 82.2 million daily active users, Similarweb said.

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[-] Arelin@lemmy.zip 52 points 3 days ago

This is the first time americans are talking directly to chinese people en masse like this, no? The state department must be scrambling to get things in order. I don't think they expected the ban to backfire this bad lol

Wonder how long it'll last before it's closed off.

[-] Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de 39 points 3 days ago

For many Chinese, this is also their first time talking to Americans. There are a ton of stories of them asking us if school shootings and medical bankruptcy are real or if it is just CCP anti-US propaganda. It is gut wrenching when we have to tell them that all the terrible things they have heard about the US are not only true, but worse than they imagine

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 12 points 3 days ago

If you asked an American if we use child labor they would say “of course not!” but we keep mysteriously finding kids in meat packing plants and auto manufacturing plants and farms and….

My point is that just because the average citizen doesn’t know about bad things doesn’t make the bad things non-existent.

[-] john89@lemmy.ca 13 points 3 days ago

Now I don't know what to believe.

I guess I should look at all the foreigners who think the US is some lawless wasteland and not be surprised Americans have similar misconceptions about other nations.

[-] Arelin@lemmy.zip 25 points 3 days ago

Chinese Rednote users actually seem to have a relatively utopian view of the US. I'm seeing alot of posts asking if it's true that most Americans can afford to own a house and being corrected by americans in the comments; stuff like that.

Also they really like Luigi Mangione lol, even before americans came into the app.

[-] Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 3 days ago

When you consider the school shootings, mass shootings, insane medical debt, and the fact that we have 8x the traffic fatality rate per capita of many developed nations, etc, I don't blame people for seeing the US as being a lawless dumpster fire.

If you disagree, next time you are out driving try to estimate how many drivers actually follow the law (drive below the speed limit, stop at crosswalks, slow down even more when visibility is poor or there are pedestrians or children nearby, etc).

Also, how many people drive small cars that are cleaner and safer for our communities vs giant Wankpanzers? People who are willing to make our cities more polluted and more dangerous for everyone overall just to make themselves slightly safer are morally bankrupt even if they technically follow the law they don't value the spirit of the law.

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[-] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 23 points 3 days ago

Not for me but seems like a win overall? People are generally far less willing to hurt/fight people they know well compared to some nebulous concept of a nation. If American and Chinese people get to know eachother in a social setting it can only be a good thing.

[-] NaevaTheRat@vegantheoryclub.org 26 points 3 days ago

The fear is ridiculous. Yes it's somewhat sanitised, all social media is sanitised. Shit even on lemmy large instances are going to remove a video of me showing how to inject heroin or, for a more moderate thing, explain how trans people can DIY hormones.

It is good when people from different cultures share stuff. It is good when state barriers break down and people see how we're all so similar at the end of the day.

[-] comfy@lemmy.ml 13 points 3 days ago

Yes it’s somewhat sanitised, all social media is sanitised.

And it's all sanitized for good reason - the closest places to unsanitized, such as freespeechextremist, are literally just spambots, molesters, troll neo-nazis and people mechanically incapable of holding a conversation without bursting into nonsense screeds in all caps. Effectively, just the people no-one else wants to talk to.

As for the RedNote sanitizing, some of the ones I've seen newcomers getting tripped up on are rules which would make our local social media better. They seem aimed at countering grifters/influencers, sexualization for popularity (not being a prude, rather, there are plenty of other places for that content) and similar negative trends associated with TikTok.

[-] Alsephina@lemmy.ml 25 points 3 days ago
[-] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 19 points 3 days ago

Just so you know, PRC is not a very inclusive place. Have a look at this article for more info.

[-] Alsephina@lemmy.ml 15 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yeah they have a long way to go like most of the world; wish they'd just copy Cuba and the GDR on that.

Also you'd be better served with a specific documentary like this one instead of just lazily linking to wikipedia.

[-] wurzelgummidge@lemmy.ml 9 points 3 days ago

A crowd sourced encyclopedia is only as trustworthy as the editors that control the page. I wouldn't trust wikipedia for anything to do with geopolitics or current affairs any more than I would trust any other mainstream media source.

[-] cdf12345@lemm.ee 18 points 3 days ago

That’s why encyclopedia’s list their sources?

[-] capuccino@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

US people once again realizing that they are not the center of the world

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[-] Arcturus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 3 days ago

Looks like they're starting to geolock some users, so americans mostly see posts/comments made from the US

Can't people just not be racist

[-] Sagittarii@lemm.ee 25 points 3 days ago

At least the chuds are screeching though lol

[-] davel@lemmy.ml 14 points 3 days ago

DON’T 👏 INSTALL 👏 小红书 — It gave me third degree Havana syndrome, which my health insurance won’t cover.

[-] comfy@lemmy.ml 12 points 3 days ago

If the CIA agents in Havana don't get Cuban healthcare benefits, they should just quit.

[-] Asafum@feddit.nl 14 points 3 days ago

Honestly since I've learned about how the Chinese people seem to be taking it and really like the interaction with "us" I've been more interested in checking out weibo. That seems more similar to this and is more about communicating instead of pictures and videos of specific topics.

Just can't make an account for some reason lol keep getting errors in Chinese even though I'm using the international site lol

[-] Sagittarii@lemm.ee 12 points 3 days ago

Yeah seems like Rednote is specifically centered around lifestyle and art while Weibo and Baidu are for general use

[-] davel@lemmy.ml 13 points 3 days ago

The saddest downvotes are the “shoot the messenger” downvotes. I find this fact inconvenient so

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[-] JiveTurkey@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

Yes please everyone from the banned app move to an app that has a solid chance of being banned for the exact same reason. Unbelievably dumb but I guess we are talking about the tictok user base so I shouldn't be surprised.

[-] Sagittarii@lemm.ee 35 points 3 days ago

That's the point? It's people signalling they're not dumb enough to believe the US's "national security" shit and would trust China's products over american ones like Meta or Xitter

[-] Grapho@lemmy.ml 15 points 3 days ago

It'd also be so fucking funny if the US forces people to use a VPN to access Xiaohongshu. How the turntables.

[-] comfy@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 days ago

Soon we'll be routing our internet connections like flight paths to get around sanctions.

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[-] JiveTurkey@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

Despite China history with the Uyghurs, child labor, and many other human rights violations and completely ignoring the fact that the people of China have a mile long list of apps they're not allowed to download and a longer list of things they're not allowed to speak about. These people sure know how to signal.

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this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
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