In rebellion against a likely Supreme Court–affirmed ban on TikTok, an app that censors and propagandizes on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, many users are switching to other popular Chinese apps, like RedNote, called Xiaohongshu in China.
RedNote is Red all right. And it censors. Users are shocked, shocked (“Americans Get First Taste of Chinese Censorship After Fleeing TikTok for RedNote,” Breitbart, January 16, 2025).
New American RedNote users are finding that they are prohibited from discussing certain topics on the Chinese platform—which has jumped to the top of the Apple App Store in downloads ahead of TikTok’s January 19 ban—according to a report by TheWrap.
The Chinese app reportedly has a rule ordering users to share what it calls “the correct view of history.”
On Wednesday, the outlet conducted its own experiment on RedNote, finding that the Chinese platform “quickly censored a post that included the famous photo of ‘Tank Man,’ ” the unidentified man who famously stood in front of Chinese tanks.
The RedNote post, which included the caption, “Does anyone know what happened to tank man at Tiananmen Square in 1989?” was slapped with a violation and blocked from the view of other users within five minutes of being published.
“Please abide by community standards when creating,” the violation notice read.
RedNote reportedly outlines four main rules that users must follow on its platform, which include complying “with the [Chinese] Constitution and laws and regulations,” practicing “the core values of socialism,” promoting “patriotism, collectivism, and socialism,” and spreading “the correct view of history, nationality, country, and culture.”
Another “alternative” is Lemon8, which, like TikTok, is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance—which ByteDance is using TikTok to promote.
Breitbart’s headline gives the impression, though, that TikTok does not censor. False. See The Guardian’s 2019 article on “how TikTok censors videos that do not please Beijing” or The Washington Post’s article on the same subject.
Also see this and this and Network Contagion Research Institute’s study “The CCP’s Digital Charm Offensive: How TikTok’s Search Algorithm and Pro-China Influence Networks Indoctrinate GenZ Users in the United States.”
Suppressive algorithms
NCRI says that this August 2024 study, on a subject that it has treated previously, provides “a more comprehensive analysis of TikTok’s moderation practices, examining the nature and prevalence of CCP-sensitive content…. [W]e uncover the extent to which TikTok and other platforms may influence user perceptions and behaviors in favor of the CCP…. Much of the pro-CCP content originates from state-linked entities, including media outlets and influencers….
“This report establishes that TikTok algorithms actively suppress content critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) while simultaneously boosting pro-China propaganda and promoting distracting, irrelevant content. Through the use of travel influencers, frontier lifestyle accounts, and other CCP-linked content creators, the platform systematically shouts down sensitive discussions about issues like ethnic genocide and human rights abuses.”
TikTok’s censorship, though pervasive, seems less direct than RedNote’s, which may be why at least some TikTok fans feel flummoxed by RedNote’s instant “Hey, mentioning Tiananmen Square violates community standards!” popups and instant blocking. But it’s the same thing.
