After many years of the U.S government threatening to ban TikTok, on January 18, 2025, around 7:00 pm it was officially banned; time is running out for an American company to purchase the app.
Days before pre-empting the bill passing, millions of Americans started to download an app known as RedNote. It was a backup plan that allowed users to transfer to a newly discovered app with similar features from TikTok such as a scrolling feature that shows you videos that are recommended to you because of your interest.
New and former users named themselves “TikTok refugees”, where Chinese citizens welcomed new users with Mandarin livestreams to teach new users. Additionally, RedNote quickly added a feature to translate to accommodate a massive unpredicted English audience.
Thousands of Americans accepted the terms and conditions, many not knowing what they signed up to as there was no direct translation; people were simply trying to get an app just like TikTok.
The reason why TikTok was banned was because there was concerns that the Chinese government would be getting data from the American government.
A New York Times article states, “Concerns that the Chinese government could manipulate content and gain access to sensitive user data through the app”.
The Chinese company, Bytedance was given an extension until January 19th to no longer work with TikTok if not it would be banned if not sold to a company that is not Chinese owned by President Trump after the 12 hour ban gave TikTok 90 days no one knows who will buy the app before the time ending but many of the users do not want to lose the app.
Although they don’t want to lose the app they already have an alternative the Chinese app, RedNote where can be used just as TikTok as many users were desperate to find an app with the same community as TikTok. Re-elected President Trump was the one that brought it back although he was the one that in the first place wanted to ban it.
RedNote has been a very popular app in China for a very long time, and in just a short period of time the app accomplished ratings and users, the owner of TikTok would work so hard for. Rednote did it without even trying in such a short notice.
“Red Note has achieved something TikTok owner ByteDance has been dreaming of for years—winning overseas users without trying too hard. In 2020, ByteDance launched a knockoff version, Lemon8, and has paid users to post on it. Yet the app has struggled to retain users. It has recently benefited from the TikTok migration, now ranking at no. 2 on the U.S. app store, but almost all the buzz surrounds Red Note.” A TIME’s article states.
This just shows how popular RedNote actually got after the “TikTok time out” of 12 hours. Many users of the TikTok community went straight to RedNote, without worrying about what the terms and conditions said when they could have suffered major consequences without knowing.
Therefore, although the TikTok ban did scare many of its users with the temporary ban, it shows how much Tiktok has truly made an impact in the lives of many Americans. Considering that they were in search for a new “replacement”.
This timeout also made citizens realize their data will most likely be used and surveilled, it only depends on public perception of the company doing it.
Written by Karla Contreras, Staff Writer