SPITE AND SWITCH: AMERICAN USERS CHOOSE CHINESE APPS OVER THEIR OWN

By Victoria Rivera

Imagine banning one of the world’s largest social media apps to curb Chinese influence, only for Americans to willingly hand over their data en masse.

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After TikTok was banned in January 19 for an impressive, whopping half a day after years of campaigning against it, Chinese app Xiaohongshu found itself loaded with thousands of “TikTok refugees.” These were Americans who’ve never stepped foot in China, then swearing to learn Mandarin and engage in culture exchanges. In trying to restrict China’s digital outreach, America may have only accelerated it.

It’s important to note the mass migration of American users came from more than the ban alone. Rather, there has been a trend of growing disillusion with American owned apps among younger generations, the most popular of which being Twitter (X).

According to a poll by Exploding Topics this year, 60% of TikTok users also used Twitter— an app that’s only grown increasingly polarized. Its rebranding and ensuing changes under Elon Musk has resulted in both political pushback and an overall dissatisfaction with the usability of the app.

A platform that once thrived on human connection became oversaturated with paid bots that clog comment sections, a downright nonfunctional moderation system, and hatred for its owner only made the migration more tempting. Users have decided to completely cut out the middleman through Xiaohongshu— or RedNote. Though it’s a closer equivalent to Instagram than TikTok, over 700,000 people all flocked to the app in preparation for the ban.

Semrush, a marketing platform that tracks search volumes, found a massive spike in the beginning of 2025. RedNote searches went from a reported 67,500 in December to 6.8 million in just the next month.

Favyan Suarez, a junior pre-law student, is a TikTok user.

“I use TikTok regularly. I enjoy scrolling on TikTok to see a bunch of funny videos… I think that if people truly want to move from TikTok to RedNote as a protest, they should do it. [Though] I’m not sure how effective that kind of protest would be, since TikTok technically isn’t an American app,” he said.

The pushback against the ban has gotten its own wave of panicked dissenters.

Former Federal Communication Commission's advisor Nathan Leamer has likened RedNote’s to being the “fentanyl-laced painkiller” to TikTok’s “FourLoko.” Not only are there concerns about how people won’t be able to understand what they’re signing up for in the terms of service, as it’s entirely in Mandarin, Leamer’s elaborated by saying, “Whereas TikTok pretends to have safeguards and has a U.S. presence to give a veneer of credibility, RedNote doesn’t even try to hide its connection to the Chinese Communist Party.”

These concerns have arguably only bolstered the determination of those willing to make the migration. The spite toward the banning was so great, some people became willing to take Mandarin lessons out of resentment alone.

On Jan.15, Duolingo publicly stated that they’d seen a 216% growth in Mandarin learners in comparison to the previous year.

“It’s almost a way of telling the U.S. that an app that they use shouldn’t be censored only because it is a Chinese app,” Suarez continued on the matter.

Photo Credit to Pexels

With active social media users becoming increasingly disenfranchised, other Chinese products such as DeepSeek have gotten more eyes on them than ever. Though it’s only been out since mid-January, DeepSeek’s AI is cheap and open source, meaning for a much lower price, its coding is accessible for any business to use as a template for their own models. It’s also capable of in-depth reasoning, leading to debates over if it’s better than its American competition: OpenAI or ChatGPT.

Photo Credit to Pexels

As consumers begin to explore avenues outside America, western dominance in the digital world is put at risk. Whether it came from curiosity or raw spite alone, users are becoming genuinely engaged with these alternatives to the apps they know.

As the possibility of TikTok being bought by an American corporation remains on the horizon, there’s a chance China may once again take the lead.