Wubi News

TikTok users flock to Chinese app RedNote as US ban looms

2025-01-14 16:00:17
"TikTok refugees" are streaming to Chinese app RedNote, where they have been welcomed with open arms

TikTok users in the US are migrating to a Chinese app called RedNote with the threat of a ban just days away.

The move by users who call themselves "TikTok refugees" has made RedNote the most downloaded app on Apple's US App Store on Monday.

RedNote is a TikTok competitor popular with young people in China, Taiwan and other Mandarin-speaking populations.

It has about 300 million monthly users and looks like a combination of TikTok and Instagram. It allows users, mostly young urban women, to exchange lifestyle tips from dating to fashion.

Supreme Court justices are due to rule on a law that set a 19 January deadline for TikTok to either sell its US operations or face a ban in the country.

TikTok has repeatedly said that it will not sell its US business and its lawyers have warned that a ban will violate free speech protections for the platform's 170 million users in the US.

The proposed TikTok ban would require app stores to stop offering the app, which could kill it over time