US TikTok users maliciously joined another Chinese social media app, RedNote (also known as Xiaohongshu), sending it to the top of the US App Store on Monday, en masse over the US government's decision to ban TikTok. He's snorting. Unfortunately, many of those who have already made the transition face issues with their accounts being suspended or banned for various reasons.
Initially, RedNote seemed like a promising alternative to ByteDance's TikTok in terms of app functionality due to its focus on short-form video feeds and creator content. However, the app is not a one-to-one replacement for TikTok, but is also designed to act as an alternative to China's Yelp and Google, which offers local recommendations and nearby connections in addition to a video feed.
Meanwhile, some users who joined RedNote, including popular TikToker, entrepreneur, and former Bravo star Bethenny Frankel, were penalized or banned outright after their initial posts on the Chinese app. According to various reports from TikTok users, these bans were due to various reasons.
Some people were penalized because their videos contained the TikTok watermark, which apparently could be a problem with RedNote.
Others talked about and shared screenshots of account suspension notices stating that their accounts had been suspended for violating Xiaohongshu Community Guidelines. According to user reports, some of these incidents included validation issues. When newbies tried to authenticate their accounts using a US-based phone number (an option available in the app), they couldn't receive the code, so they tried again and again. This activity resulted in the account being suspended, possibly due to bot activity.
However, some suspensions do not have clear instructions.
For example, one TikTok user claims that his account was suspended after he first posted a photo of cinnamon rolls. Another joked that it must have been banned because it had “too many thirst traps”. While TechCrunch has not independently confirmed or verified the reasons behind each reported ban, there have been enough complaints from TikTok users to suggest it's a real issue people are facing. I'm doing it.
Part of the problem is that even though users are on the app, they can't read the community guidelines, which are written in Chinese. (There is a way to switch the language to English in RedNote's app, but it's hard to know how to find that option as an English speaker because you have to navigate through the app's settings.)
Several TikTok creators have said they plan to appeal the ban, but it's unclear what kind of results their efforts will yield.
On the other hand, all the other apps that compete with TikTok have a strategy for their users, but given the need to monetize followers at scale, creators are probably turning to Meta and Google-run apps. I'll be back.