With TikTok On Verge Of Being Banned, Another Chinese Social Media App Is Swiftly Gaining Adherents
With the Supreme Court prepared to rule on whether the Chinese social media app TikTok — which has elicited warnings from legislators of its pernicious influence in the United States — could be banned in the United States, another Chinese-owned social media app is gaining adherents at a rapid rate.
ByteDance, which owns TikTok, will likely have to sell the social media platform by January 19. Otherwise, it will be shut down in the U.S., unless the Supreme Court rules in favor of the Chinese social media app.
“Congress and the president were concerned,” Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh has stated, “that China was accessing information about millions of Americans, tens of millions of Americans, including teenagers, people in their 20s.” That possibility could lead to China using the personal information for spying or blackmail. Additionally, concern has been expressed over disinformation purveyed from China.
Meanwhile, the social media app Xiaohongshu, which means “little red book” in Mandarin, “was the most downloaded free app in the U.S. Apple store on Tuesday,” The New York Times reported. “The Americans on Xiaohongshu have rallied under the hashtag ‘TikTokrefugee,’ which had been viewed 100 million times and sparked around 2.5 million discussion threads on the app by Tuesday.”
“Little Red Book” also happens to be the title of a book of sayings by Mao Zedong, the tyrannical former leader of Communist China. Under Mao, a reported 40 to 80 million victims died of starvation, persecution, prison labor, and mass executions.
In August 2023, Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, who has led the fight to ban TikTok, wrote in an opinion piece, “TikTok’s public-policy chief blatantly lied under oath when he denied US data is stored in China. ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company, was caught in October using the app to spy on American journalists.”
“Almost a third of the country uses TikTok semi-regularly,” Rubio pointed out. He delineated how TikTok was undercutting American companies by selling products more cheaply through its app. “Who, for that matter, will even be aware of American goods on the market when TikTok’s algorithm begins — as it surely will — to favor Chinese sellers?” he asked.
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“China’s totalitarian regime hates the United States and is bent on displacing us as the world’s greatest power,” Rubio wrote. “If TikTok users believe their sensitive data are safe in Beijing’s hands — that Beijing wouldn’t use those data to influence, coerce, extort or spy on them in the case of a geopolitical conflict — they need to think again.”
In March 2023, Rubio and Iowa GOP Senator Joni Ernst introduced the No Funds for Enablers of Adversarial Propaganda Act to deny federal funds to any individual or entity with an agreement, partnership, or advertisement with TikTok.
“Chinese-owned TikTok is a threat, but some entities, including our nation’s airports, are still willing to accept advertising dollars from the company. They are either naive, greedy, or both. Regardless, they shouldn’t receive taxpayer dollars if they are going to accept money from or partner with TikTok. These companies need to stop enabling Chinese Communist Party propaganda and espionage efforts,” Rubio stated.