Just a few days after more than 700 million new users flooded RedNote — which Time noted is “the most apolitical social platform in China” — rumors began circulating that RedNote would soon start segregating U.S. users and other foreign IPs from its Chinese ones users of the app.
In the “TikTokCringe” subreddit, a video of a RedNote user with red eyes, presumably swollen with tears, suggested that Americans may have ruined the app for Chinese Americans who rely on RedNote to stay up to date on Chinese news and culture.
“RedNote of Xiaohongshu released an update in the Greater China region with the feature of separating foreign IPs, and there are now talks about moving all foreign IPs to a separate server and having a different IP address for those who are in the greater China region,” the Reddit poster said. “I know people can still access the app through VPNs and other means, but this will essentially destroy the app for Chinese Americans who actually use the app. to connect with Chinese content, Chinese language and Chinese culture.”
There has been no official announcement that such a change is coming, but Reddit commenters speculated that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) may need a change to prevent American TikTokers from using the app to influence Chinese citizens.
“The CCP does not want American influence to spread among its citizens,” wrote one top commentator. That prompted another commenter to respond: “a bit of irony here,” which seems to indicate that China is locking out American TikTokers, sounds a lot like what the US government is planning to do through the TikTok ban. But others pointed out that China has long blocked Western social media apps such as Reddit and X to prevent such feared influence. “If people couldn't see this coming, they have no idea what Chinese politics are,” one Redditor suggested in the thread.
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Unlike other popular Chinese apps that require a Chinese phone number to register as a user, such as WeChat, RedNote has never had such a requirement and has always used a single version of the app, Reuters reports. So a shift to separating users would be a big change and may take more time.
