The bizarre surge in popularity in the US for China-based social media app RedNote ahead of the looming TikTok ban has sparked alarm among policy experts – who warned it carries even greater security risks than the popular video-sharing app.
More than 700,000 US users – some calling themselves “TikTok Refugees” — joined RedNote in the last two days despite the content on the site being mostly in Mandarin.
But the language barrier is far from the biggest concern.
Critics told The Post that the app has even fewer guardrails in place for American users than TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance faces a Sunday deadline to divest the app in the US due to national security concerns.
“TikTok is FourLoko to RedNote’s fentanyl-laced painkiller,” said Nathan Leamer, a former FCC policy adviser and CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies.
“Whereas TikTok pretends to have safeguards and has a US presence to give a veneer of credibility, RedNote doesn’t even try to hide its connection to the Chinese Communist Party.”
RedNote carries “serious cybersecurity and privacy risks” for American users, added Adrianus Warmenhoven, a cybersecurity expert at NordVPN.
Known in China as Xiaohongshu, which translates to “little red book” in English, the name refers to the infamous propaganda booklets full of quotes by Communist China’s founder Mao Zedong.
The app’s terms of service are written in Mandarin, which presents an obstacle to English-speaking users trying to understand its data practices.
“Like TikTok, RedNote is subject to Chinese data laws, which may grant government authorities access to user data without the privacy protections expected in the US,” Warmenhoven said.
“The platform collects extensive personal data, including location, browsing activity, and device-specific information like IP addresses.”
As a Chinese app, RedNote is required to follow the Chinese Communist Party’s standards “potentially stifling free speech and exposing users to biased information,” Warmenhoven added.
Representatives for RedNote did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.
The heavily-censored TikTok alternative has more than 300 million monthly active users, mostly in China, as of last year, according to Chinese state media.
RedNote was the most-downloaded app in Apple’s App Store on Tuesday, followed closely by Lemon8, another social media service owned by TikTok parent ByteDance.
Among the notable US users to sign up for RedNote was Taylor Lorenz, the former Washington Post reporter who encouraged X users to join the app and wrote “Long Live China.” Lorenz later implied that she was joking.
“We are coming to the Chinese spies and begging them to let us stay here,” one American user wrote on RedNote. “Approved, welcome to RedNote,” a Shanghai-based user replied.
The app is focused primarily on lifestyle content and online shopping and allows users to share short videos as well as text-based posts. It is particularly popular among women, who comprise 79% of its user base.
The sudden influx of US users reportedly caught officials at the Chinese-language app by surprise.
RedNote has been scrambling this week to implement content moderation for English-language posts and English-Chinese translation tools for the app, sources told Reuters.
Congress gave ByteDance until Jan. 19 to divest control or face a total US ban due to fears that its algorithm could secretly manipulate public opinion and gather sensitive personal data to spy on Americans.
TikTok is reportedly planning to shut down the app entirely on Sunday unless the Supreme Court intervenes on its behalf.
The popularity of RedNote and any other Chinese-owned apps that spring up to replace TikTok could be short-lived.
The divestment law gives Congress the leeway to ban other apps controlled by foreign adversaries like China if they have over one million monthly users, according to Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
“Once that is established, Xiaohongshu would be a natural candidate for a qualified divestiture,” Sobolik said.
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of House Select Committee on China – which played a key role in driving the effort against TikTok – suggested that RedNote could face a similar crackdown under the divestment law.
“Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book was instrumental in China’s communist cultural revolution that led to the tragic deaths of tens of millions of Chinese citizens,” Moolenaar said in a statement. “Today, a Chinese app of the same name wants to be the next TikTok – complete with Chinese control.
“Parents and social media creators should be aware that the CCP exploits PRC-based applications to surveil and censor Americans,” Moolenaar added. “The good news is that President Trump has the authority under the TikTok bill to force divestment of other CCP controlled applications that pose national security risks as well.”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) called RedNote “another CCP brain rot social media platform.”
China has long implemented a so-called “Great Firewall” that bans US-owned social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and X. TikTok itself is unavailable in China.
In order to comply with China’s stringent government censorship, RedNote limits or bans use of “sensitive” terms, including a list of 546 nicknames for Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to a 2022 report by China Digital Times.
