TikTok Users Mock Likely Ban By Downloading Chinese Competitor: ‘Shoutout Xi Jinping’

TikTok users are already jumping ship ahead of a potential ban of the app in the U.S. and, after years of government warnings that China was using the social media platform to access users’ sensitive data, have turned to an app called RedNote — which, ironically, is Chinese.

“If the government claims they’re banning TikTok cause they think China is stealing our data then I might as well go straight to the source,” wrote one user on X, formerly Twitter, with another commenting: “shoutout [Chinese President] xi jinping. this RedNote app is fire.”

TikTok launched in the U.S. in 2017 to become one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. While it was incorporated in the Cayman Islands and based in Singapore and Los Angeles, the platform is owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance.

U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns about TikTok’s purported data privacy violations and the mental health of its users, which include 59% of Americans under 30 and 63% of teens between the ages of 13 and 17, according to recent Pew Research Center studies.

President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration considered a ban in 2020; President Joe Biden practically guaranteed one with a foreign aid bill in April 2024 that gave TikTok nine months to sell its U.S. assets. That deadline ends this Sunday.

TikTok has said it wouldn’t sell, essentially suggesting it would rather forgo the U.S. market, and social media users have likened the threat of a ban to government censorship.

“Everyone on TikTok is transitioning to RedNote,” wrote one X user, adding: “RedNote is going to be the number one app downloaded worldwide this week. The irony of banning a Singaporean app out of China concerns, only to have everyone start using a Chinese app.”

RedNote, known in China as Xiaohongshu (or “Little Red Book”), currently tops Apple’s U.S. App Store for the iPad and iPhone with more than 150,000 ratings for an average of 4.9 out of 5 stars — and purportedly offers a similar user experience to TikTok and Instagram.

Meanwhile, users who installed TikTok before the ban will reportedly still be able to use it, albeit without access to future updates that would prolong usability.

While U.S. Supreme Court hearings on the matter are ongoing, all nine justices appeared skeptical Friday of TikTok’s argument that a ban is unconstitutional. The company also dismissed reports about Elon Musk acquiring TikTok on Monday as “pure fiction.”

For the time being, trending #TikTokRefugees are chronicling their exodus from the app — and mocking the likely ban by flaunting their new home on RedNote.