2025 TikTok refugee crisis

The 2025 TikTok-REDnote mass migration is an event that took place after the US Supreme Court announced the possible TikTok ban in January 2025. Over "half a million" TikTok users flocked over to a similar Chinese app called Xiaohongshu (or REDnote) in protest of the ban, because of the United States calling TikTok a "spying tool of the Chinese Communist party".
Background
TikTok has faced several restrictions, threats and problems within the United States since 2020, starting with, then president, Donald Trump wanting to ban TikTok. After Joe Biden took office in 2021, his administration paused the orders targeting TikTok and WeChat. Instead, Biden ordered a broader review of apps with ties to foreign powers, making a shift towards a more calm approach. However, tensions between the United States and China continued to grow over the years and TikTok remained under investigations from both lawmakers and federal agencies. Concerns over data privacy, misinformation and its impact on the American youth became the mass issues, with both Democrat and Republican politicians being against TikTok. In 2025, Trump stated that he now wanted to "save the app".
In Both 2023 and 2024, Shou Zi Chew testified in front of the US Senate Judiciary Committee and congress. However, the United States government signed the in April 2024, setting a deadline for TikTok to either be sold to a U.S.-based company until 19 January 2025 or get banned. On 15 January 2025, TikTok announced a national shutdown in the United States. similar to Instagram and TikTok, in protest of the ban. The hashtag "#tiktokrefugee" and term TikTok refugee started going viral on REDnote, being used by both Americans and Chinese, and the "TikTok refugees" starting to pay the "Cat Tax", by sending in pictures of their cats in REDnote comments to get welcomed. In a short span of time, the numbers rose up to over half a million and REDnote moderators had to start working overtime to translate everything to English and accommodate the app for new users.
However, with REDnote still being subject to censorship of the Chinese government and users having to "respect the Chinese constitution", many Americans noticed that the app was stricter than TikTok, leading to many bans after unknowingly talking about topics such as the Persecution of Uyghurs in China and the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu