The strange rise in popularity in the US of China-based social media app RedNote, ahead of TikTok’s impending ban, has raised alarm among policy experts – who have warned that it carries even greater security risks than the popular app video sharing.
More than 700,000 American users — some calling themselves “TikTok Refugees” — joined RedNote in the past 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 safeguards for American users than TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance faces a deadline on Sunday to remove the app in the US due to national security concerns.
“TikTok is the FourLoko to RedNote’s fentanyl painkiller,” said Nathan Leamer, a former FCC policy adviser and CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies.
“While TikTok claims to have safeguards and a presence in the US to give it a veneer of credibility, RedNote doesn’t even try to hide its connection to the Chinese Communist Party.”
RedNote poses “serious cybersecurity and privacy risks” to US 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 pamphlets full of quotes from Communist China’s founder Mao Zedong.
The app’s terms of service are written in Mandarin, which presents a hurdle for English-speaking users trying to understand its data practices.
“Like TikTok, RedNote is subject to Chinese data laws, which could give 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 such as IP addresses.”
As a Chinese app, RedNote is required to follow Chinese Communist Party 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 alternative TikTok 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, closely followed by Lemon8, another social media service owned by TikTok’s parent ByteDance.
Among the prominent US users who signed 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 hinted that he was joking.
“We are coming to the Chinese spies and begging them to let us stay here,” wrote one American user on RedNote. “Approved, welcome to RedNote,” replied a Shanghai-based user.
The app is mainly focused 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 make up 79% of its user base.
The sudden influx of American users reportedly caught the Chinese-language app’s officials by surprise.
RedNote has been trying 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 remove control or face a total US ban over fears its algorithm could secretly manipulate public opinion and collect 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 emerge to replace TikTok may be short-lived.
The sale law gives Congress leeway to ban other apps controlled by foreign adversaries like China if they have more than a million monthly users, according to Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
“Once established, Xiaohongshu would be a natural candidate for a qualified sale,” Sobolik said.
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Select Committee on China — which played a key role in pushing the effort against TikTok — suggested that RedNote could face a similar blow under the sales 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 uses PRC-based apps to monitor and censor Americans,” Moolenaar added. “The good news is that President Trump has the authority under the TikTok bill to force the takedown of other CCP-controlled apps that also pose national security risks.”
Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) called RedNote “another CCP brain rot social media platform.”
China has long implemented a so-called “Great Firewall” that blocks US-owned social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram and X. TikTok itself is not available in China.
In order to comply with China’s strict government censorship, RedNote restricts or bans the use of “sensitive” terms, including a list of 546 nicknames for Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to a 2022 report by China Digital Times.
#Exclusive #Chinaowned #TikTok #alternative #RedNotes #rise #raises #alarm #security #risks
Image Source : nypost.com