Summary
Many Americans are migrating to RedNote, a Chinese-owned app based in China, raising significant privacy and security concerns.
Experts warn that RedNote, based in China, is subject to Chinese laws, including the Personal Information Protection Law and Data Security Law, which grant the government rights to request data and cooperation with intelligence operations.
Enforcement of these laws is often opaque. Analysts highlight risks of data collection, algorithm manipulation, and censorship on RedNote.
Critics argue the U.S. lacks comprehensive privacy laws, driving users to platforms like RedNote that may pose even greater risks than TikTok.
Frankly, if you were on TikTok at all, I don’t think you were following who I was following. It’s like YouTube. You can post stupid meme dance videos, you can post lectures by historians. I don’t appreciate the condescension. When you are seeing things on there - primary source evidence, not any kind of propaganda - that directly contradict what you hear from conventional media, you’re forced to develop skills to account for the disparity. Otherwise, without that info, you just stay in a bubble - which was precisely the intention of the ban.
Maybe this is an American-centric thing, but then the rest of the world does see the US as a strange place with strange ideas
The funny thing though, is that China is an even bigger bubble with thicker walls.
TikTok is a Chinese owned product, it’s developed by people who live in China, and the Chinese government has a direct influence on the content and how it’s presented to users. This isn’t hearsay or an opinion. It’s a fact.
Another fact, that people seem to always gloss over or ignore, is that TikTok isn’t even allowed in the country that develops it. They have their own internal version called Douyin, which is the same as TikTok, and people outside of China aren’t allowed to use it.
If China had one platform for everyone, this discussion wouldn’t even be happening.