At least at the time of this writing, we're still waiting for a decision from the Supreme Court on TikTok's future, but the app's users won't be waiting to find out what happens.
Over the past few days, TikTok alternatives like Clapper, Flip, and TikTok's Lemon8 have risen to the top of the app store charts. The most popular among them, Little Hong Thumade the greatest impression upon it more than 700,000 new users.
The exodus—spurred by the ban effort and carried out entirely out of spite—demonstrates how futile the five-plus year effort to protect Americans from a “dangerous” app has truly been. In fact, the effort appears to have made things worse for those in power.
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Just dessert!
Many times, the US government has said that the main goal of banning TikTok has always been to protect American users from Chinese propaganda and protect their data.
I think it's fair to say that, unsurprisingly, the government has made mistakes. Important moment.
In just a few short days, Xiaohongshu – which means “Little Red Book” in English – has turned US-China relations upside down. This app was founded in 2013 and operates like a Chinese version of Instagram. Not only do Americans watch videos and images on an app that actively censors content related to Tiananmen Square and shows nothing when searching for “Xi Jinping,” but they also give it their consent. vindictively monitor their data. Overall, the results were the exact opposite of what the US intelligence community wanted.
Many Americans also offered advice on how to better integrate into Xiaohongshu's predominantly Chinese user base. A TikTok user posted a video this week asked new American users to “stop talking about democracy” on the app. “If you are Taiwanese,” she said, “and you are on the Xiaohongshu then you are now Chinese. Sorry.” I couldn't find a single criticism in her comments section. In fact, many users thanked her for the advice.
If anything, the push to ban TikTok has inspired Americans to care more about China than anything else. There has been a large number of TikTok users learning Mandarin by chatting with Chinese Xiaohongshu users or downloading language learning apps like Duolingo.
“Start learning on Duolingo and from creators on Red Note (or Xiaohongshu),” one TikTok user wrote to me. “Even added a Chinese keyboard option to my phone.”
“I downloaded Red Note and took my first Duolingo Chinese lesson this morning 😂,” another said.
“oh so NOW you're learning mandarin,” said Duolingo's X account Posted on Tuesday respond to interest rate growth.
Duolingo spokesperson Monica Earle told WIRED that the number of new Duolingo users signing up to learn Chinese has increased by 216 percent. When someone signs up for a Duolingo account, they are asked to fill out a survey explaining how they found the app, and the company has observed a “corresponding spike” in users choosing “TikTok.” as their reason for joining Duolingo.