RedNote: Is TikTok’s Chinese alternative any safer than the app facing a potential US ban?
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China-based RedNote has experienced a huge surge in downloads from users both from the US and across the world. China-based RedNote has experienced a huge surge in downloads from users in the US and worldwide as the 19 January deadline for the US TikTok ban approaches.
![[Like TikTok, RedNote is owned by a Chinese company, Xingyin Information Technology.]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/16/16/GettyImages-2193589118.jpg)
TikTok will disappear from Apple and Android app stores on Sunday unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, either sells the app to an approved buyer or convinces the US Supreme Court to delay the ban. The ban stems from national security concerns, with lawmakers claiming that ByteDance’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party could enable spying or political manipulation through users’ feeds. Both TikTok and ByteDance have strongly denied the allegations and mounted several legal challenges against the bill.
![[Translated sections reveal strict content rules, banning anything that “destroys the unity of the nation-state,” violates the “bottom line of the socialist system,” or “edits the vision of the nation.”]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/14/07/SEI235899105.jpg)
But even if the ban is enforced, is it simply pushing users toward another app with similar risks?. Like TikTok, RedNote is owned by a Chinese company, Xingyin Information Technology. Chartered security expert James Bore says that, like most social media platforms, RedNote prioritises growth and engagement over user privacy. However, the platform’s governance under Chinese law sets it apart.
“The difference is that China has a law that the government must have a stake in companies,” he told The Independent. “This is not a secret, it’s written into Chinese law so that they can overrule things and make sure there’s nothing that threatens the Chinese state. That’s a level of interference in companies that we’re not really used to in the West.”.
