In Response To The U.S. Government Banning TikTok, Americans Are Giving Their Information To An Even More Chinese App 'RedNote'

CNBC - Chinese social media app RedNote has skyrocketed to the top of Apple’s app store, underscoring concerns that TikTok will soon be effectively banned in the U.S.

RedNote, or Xiaohongshu as it’s known in China, is the number one free app on the Apple app store as of Monday, followed by TikTok’s photo-sharing Lemon8 app and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Many TikTok creators are rushing to find alternatives where they can continue posting videos while waiting to see what happens with TikTok, which faces a potential Jan. 19 ban in the U.S. The Supreme Court held oral arguments last week about the April law setting the stage for a ban, and seemed to side more favorably with the U.S. government’s arguments that ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok poses a national security risk.

Barring a Supreme Court change of heart, or Mr. Wonderful presenting TikTok's parent company ByteDance with an offer they can't refuse, the United States TikTok ban will go into effect on Sunday, January 19th. TikTok creators everywhere will be out of work. They'll be forced to take minimum wage jobs at McDonald's. Or join a street gang. 

But in an effort to fight back against the establishment, and assure that China is not forced to go even one day without our private information, those who simply can't imagine a life without conveniently scrollable short form video content have found a solution in the form of an even more Chinese social media app. RedNote aka Xiaohongshu aka 小红书 has skyrocketed to the #1 downloaded free app on the Apple charts. 

Looks legit to me. Apparently watching a Chinese man give a 2-minute tutorial in a language you don't understand on how to make a sourdough bread starter is preferable to watching anybody do it in English on an American government approved app. Or to downloading a VPN and continuing to use TikTok like normal. I'm sure 小红书 will be the next big social media app, and will continue allowing young creators to fend off ever having to work a regular 9-5, without being forced to bend the knee to Mark Zuckerberg. 

This would be a really great week for a Chinese cyber criminal. From what I can tell (which is not a lot), RedNote is a legitimate enough company. I think there's a greater than 50% chance they don't do something terribly shady with your email address, telephone number, and credit card number. But all it would take is for someone to throw together a half-ass version of TikTok, market it as a Chinese alternative to TikTok, and Americans will sign up for it without a second thought. Doesn't matter how much it sucks. By the time they realize the app is barely usable, they'll have already sent a copy of their birth certificate. 

I'm sure it's not that easy. But there's opportunity there somewhere. You've got American's with credit cards blindly signing up for Chinese apps without being able to read a lick of the description. For all they know, RedNote could have signed them up for 5 years service in the People's Liberation Army. China may have gained a million American communist soldiers in the last 24 hours. But that's not what's important. What's important is that the kids are teaching our government a lesson. If they're not going to let us let China spy on us through TikTok, then we'll make sure they can do it from a much shittier, MUCH more Chinese app. Your move government.