"U guys don't need a new app, u guys need a revolution"
On joining RedNote (小红书) as democracy ends.
Edit 2025-01-19 5:00pm EST: It seems as though after less than 16 hours, TikTok has been restored in the U.S. This does not change the spirit of this post and I maintain that there are nefarious intentions afoot. Some have claimed that TikTok has been sold to Meta, but this has yet to be confirmed. Regardless, the fact that this platform, and any platform, can now be taken away at any moment is still indicative of rising authoritarianism in this country. Stay tuned for updates!
Last night at around 10:34pm EST, TikTok’s American servers were taken down. The only thing that users in the U.S. could see when opening the app was this splash page stating that that it would be down “for now” and that the company was grateful to incoming president Donald Trump for potentially bringing the app back in the coming days.
As TikTok users have scattered to different platforms in the wake of the ban, one app has received particular attention: 小红书, aka Little Red Book or RedNote, is a Chinese-based app akin to Instagram, Pinterest, and Quora smashed together. Over the past week, TikTok users have been joining the platform in numbers not yet quantified, but enough to launch RedNote into the #1 downloaded social app on the Apple App Store this week.
These “TikTok refugees” aren’t so much executing a deeply considered political strategy as they are doing a “hey guys wouldn’t it be super funny if we did this” kind of move. It’s generally understood among us users that the American government is banning the app not to help the American people—it will, in fact, take away an income source and thus an important lifeline for tens of thousands of creators and small businesses—but due to a confluence of lobbying efforts, including from Meta, X, and pro-Israel groups. The fact that the app is going away isn’t even the worst part (I’ve been cross-posting to Instagram for years and I’ve been critical of TikTok for as long as I’ve been on it); it’s the political implications that are truly crushing. Trump now has the power to ban any app he sees fit under the excuse of “national security”, and tech corporations have so much more power than the individual in their ability to simply buy politicians to help make their businesses grow. To a billionaire, dropping $20 million to lobby congress is equivalent to an American who has $1000 in their bank account spending $20 to go out for sushi (both cases involve spending 2% of your wealth). It definitely doesn’t help that both Zuck and Musk are fucking weirdo creeps.
Joining RedNote is a way to stick it to American politicians and tech oligarchs; for that reason, I doubt most Americans will stick around past Monday, especially if Trump does indeed “save” the app (which I contend would still fundamentally change the app’s nature in a way that would be unpleasant to most users.) That doesn’t mean we can’t have fun in the meantime, though…
Here, I want to provide my first-hand account of what it was like to join RedNote and my opinion on what that means politically, if anything. Is this cultural exchange truly as “revolutionary” as people say it is?
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