Since mid-January 2025, hundreds of thousands of American TikTok users have flocked to the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. (Internet screenshot composite / Dajiyuan)
People News - With the deadline for the TikTok ban fast approaching, an increasing number of American TikTok users, who now call themselves "TikTok refugees," are flocking to the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. They are creating accounts and uploading videos originally posted on TikTok.
Through screens, third-party translation software, and manual translations, netizens from China and the U.S. have started to engage in a wave of interactions. On the other side of the ocean, Xiaohongshu, once a niche platform, has quickly become the most downloaded app in the U.S.
Suddenly, Xiaohongshu transformed into "Little Western Book."
However, the good times didn’t last long. More and more of the American "TikTok refugees" who successfully landed on Xiaohongshu are now finding themselves banned.
What’s going on? The culprit is the "Chinese characteristic" internet censorship system.
According to netizens, some American users have had their accounts banned on Xiaohongshu after posting content that "displeased" the Chinese Communist Party authorities. One user, for example, uploaded a post titled "F*ck Chinese Communist Party" along with a photo of the Tiananmen Square protests. Shortly after, their account was swiftly banned by Xiaohongshu's official review system.
Another American user posted a photoshopped image of Mao Zedong with U.S. basketball player LeBron James, accompanied by a post titled "Love you, Grandpa." A Chinese user saw the post and predicted, "You will be banned, brother." Eventually, the prediction came true, and this user's account was also banned.
In another case, an American female user who posted on Xiaohongshu introducing herself as a Lesbian was immediately banned, and her related post was deleted.
Additionally, according to Chinese media outlet Phoenix Finance, Xiaohongshu has begun to recruit English-language content reviewers overnight to strengthen its censorship efforts in response to the increasing number of "TikTok refugees."
The large influx of American TikTok users into Xiaohongshu, interacting enthusiastically with Chinese users, presents a golden opportunity for the platform to expand its influence and visibility. This would also be a positive development for the recent promotion of U.S.-China civilian exchanges by the Beijing authorities. However, frequent post deletions and account bans have given the "TikTok refugees" a firsthand experience of Xiaohongshu's "Chinese characteristics," where they have tasted the restrictions on speech enforced by the Chinese Communist Party.
If this situation continues, will they be scared away?
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