r/technology • u/longiner • Jan 18 '25

Social Media As US TikTok users move to RedNote, some are encountering Chinese-style censorship for the first time

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/16/tech/tiktok-refugees-rednote-china-censorship-intl-hnk/index.html
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u/verrius Jan 18 '25

Its honestly incredibly weird and disorienting to suddenly hear about everyone using "Red Note", only to realize it's the "Little Red Book" I've heard about for the past 2+ years. I guess more mainstream Americans realized there might be more pushback to the original translation of the app?

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u/bionicjoey Jan 18 '25

My understanding is Rednote is the official English name for the app in order to avoid the obvious connotation of the direct translation.

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u/mdp300 Jan 18 '25

I don't use TikTok, but I would love an Instagram alternative that's not part of Meta. "Try rednote!" They said. I looked into it, and its basically TikTok, but CCP approved.

No thanks.

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u/Crashastern Jan 18 '25

I’ve heard good things about pixelfed. But I never really used instagram and haven’t tried pixelfed. I just see it mentioned as the safer spot to land.

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u/MobiusOne_ISAF Jan 18 '25

BlueSky is working on an ATProto powered Instagram alternative, which should be online in about a month. Hopefully, that takes off since it offers a real viable alternative to Instagram with fewer of the pitfalls of a completely decentralized alternative.

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u/gymnastgrrl Jan 19 '25

Oh, I hope that works out. So far, Bluesky seems to be doing a bang-up job as a shitter (sorry, xitter) replacement, and based on what I've seen, I wouldn't mind them having a bigger piece of the social networking pie.

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u/pleachchapel Jan 18 '25 edited Jan 18 '25

Meta's algorithm sucks SO MUCH people would rather deal with propaganda they can easily spot than propaganda slipped into every piece of content around them. It's not complicated nor concerning. People used TikTok because the algorithm was better.

Edit: typo

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u/bionicjoey Jan 18 '25

Implying these people have enough brain cells for propaganda on XiaoHongShu to be "easy to spot"

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u/pleachchapel Jan 18 '25

Not sure how that's better or worse than people not realizing all advertising is capitalist propaganda.

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u/bionicjoey Jan 18 '25

It's not really better or worse. Just different.

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u/pleachchapel Jan 18 '25

A nuanced opinion? On Reddit? How dare you.

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u/bionicjoey Jan 18 '25

I know. I deserve to be locked up.

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u/lockdownfever4all Jan 19 '25

Xiaohongshu is an app of capitalism. People open up stores, sell goods and get you to buy into trends. The idea it’s a Chinese propaganda app is hilarious

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u/SupahJoe Jan 19 '25

Only so far as those businesses don't go against CCP agendas, all "capitalism" in China is done at the pleasure of the Party, that was Deng Xiaoping's major contribution.

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u/StopThePresses Jan 18 '25

And RedNote's algo works. Did anyone really think that everyone was just gonna go "oh ok, let me just head over to meta and try to train their algorithm for them"?

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u/MaesterHannibal Jan 18 '25

The algorithm was better? You mean the one that pushes shit down your throats, while China itself had a different algo that gave them completely different content? Why do you think that is? Why do you think China won’t expose their own citizens to the crap they expose you people to? Could it possibly be because TikTok is freaking awful, and it’s good that it got banned? No, couldn’t possibly be that. Must be because of evil West, and poor, misunderstood China

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u/Extension_Shallot679 Jan 18 '25

Tiktok being banned is good but it obviously wasn't banned for good reasons. TikTok is fucking awful but so are X and Meta, and they sure as hell aren't getting banned any time soon.

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u/alanxloh Jan 18 '25

I’m not even pro CCP but I’m sick of hearing this bs about China having a different algo.

Did you know that the Chinese TikTok, DouYin has an equal amount, if not more brain rot than TikTok? The population there is much more addicted to TikTok than we ever were, because at least it’s limited to Gen Z + Millennials in western countries. In China even people’s grandparents are addicted to DouYin

Source: I’m a Gen Z Chinese from Malaysia that consumes that consumes content from both western and Chinese social media

Just watch this for example https://v.douyin.com/ifYAafdM/

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u/calDragon345 Jan 18 '25

I find the whole mass promoting and advertising of the app that suddenly appeared to be very disorienting and creepy. It’s like people are unable to act differently. I don’t think I’ve hated my people more in my life.

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u/lockdownfever4all Jan 19 '25

As an American living in china and using the app for years it’s been entertaining. More so just seeing Americans see Chinese as people living relatively normal lives

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '25

[deleted]

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u/calDragon345 Jan 19 '25

Yeah and humans are so great aren’t they?