A looming TikTok ban in the US has prompted many of the app’s American users to try other Chinese-owned social media apps such as Red Note and Lemon8. These host short-form videos and photos and have recently become the most downloaded mobile apps on the US Apple App Store and Google Play store.
But Red Note – the English name for the Chinese app Xiaohongshu – may not be such a safe haven. US TikTok users accustomed to a more freewheeling culture could be in for a shock as they experience censorship restrictions put in place by the Chinese government for the first time.
“It’s hard to know the scope of the migration, but I don’t expect either of these apps to become entrenched in the US,” says at Yale University. “Xiaohongshu particularly is targeted towards a domestic Chinese audience and American users are already running into unexpected censorship, particularly around LGBTQ topics.”
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Like other Chinese companies, Red Note’s parent company Xingyin Information Technology follows China’s rules by actively blocking certain keywords among search terms, taking down posts and even user accounts if they raise some political and social topics. Such censored topics include derogatory for Chinese leader Xi Jinping and references to the , which are blocked widely in China.
Red Note’s censorship of social issues has forced influencers among the Chinese to walk a fine line by using coded hashtags and other workarounds.
Though the current flood of TikTok users has brought more English content to the platform – sparking some , language lessons and other cultural exchanges between Chinese and US users – the app’s technical support services and user interface are still primarily geared toward its mostly Chinese user base. posted to US app stores indicate that some English-speaking users are still encountering a lot of content in Chinese.
“The influx of American users to these apps, even if temporary, has created some viral moments of cultural exchange that are good for the people aspect of US-China relations,” says Hine.
The other app seeing a spike in US users is Lemon8, which is owned by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance. The app  following its February 2023 launch in the US and UK, but ByteDance has explicitly  Lemon8 as an alternative to TikTok in the months leading up to the US ban deadline. ByteDance also recently made a change requiring all Lemon8 users to log in using a TikTok account.
Unlike Red Note, the international-focused Lemon8 may be freer of Chinese government censorship because its  in the US and Singapore – and it is headquartered in Singapore under a ByteDance subsidiary. But that doesn’t mean it is in the clear quite yet.
Lemon8 would also fall under the law that bans TikTok while it is owned by ByteDance. If the law is upheld, starting on 19 January US internet and tech companies would be required to stop supporting or enabling access to TikTok or any other application developed by ByteDance – unless the company sells the app to a US firm. The law could also serve as a precedent for expanding bans to other Chinese-owned apps such as Red Note.
There is still some uncertainty around when and how the ban could take effect. The US Supreme Court is set to rule on TikTok’s legal challenge to the ban, with many justices of TikTok’s claim that the ban violates the US Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of speech. US President-elect Trump has and said his administration would “take a look” at the ban. In the meantime, the US Senate is also considering a that would provide a 270-day deadline extension to give ByteDance more time to seek a US buyer for TikTok.
