CCP Linked to Strategic RedNote Promotion After TikTok Ban

On 11 March 2025, The Diplo­mat report­ed that a coor­di­nat­ed Chi­nese influ­ence cam­paign like­ly orches­trat­ed the mass migra­tion of Amer­i­can users to Red­Note fol­low­ing Tik­Tok’s ban. The arti­cle begins:

In Jan­u­ary 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld U.S. leg­is­la­tion that would effec­tive­ly ban Tik­Tok, cit­ing nation­al secu­ri­ty con­cerns over its Chi­nese own­er­ship. This legal rul­ing set off a wave of uncer­tain­ty for the mil­lions of Amer­i­can users who rely on the app for enter­tain­ment, con­nec­tion, and even busi­ness. Imme­di­ate­ly after Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump took office, he pushed back the total ban, instead insti­tut­ing a 75-day pro­ba­tion peri­od, where­in Tik­Tok has to find a U.S.-based buy­er and any vio­la­tions of the terms, par­tic­u­lar­ly relat­ing to data pri­va­cy and gov­er­nance, could lead to anoth­er shut­down. But in the midst of this chaos, anoth­er app emerged: Red­Note, also known as Xiao­hong­shu on the main­land. The Chi­nese plat­form quick­ly gained trac­tion among Tik­Tok’s dis­placed users. How­ev­er, what appeared to be a nat­ur­al shift for users was, in fact, a care­ful­ly orches­trat­ed relo­ca­tion backed by an appar­ent influ­ence cam­paign, which rais­es sig­nif­i­cant con­cerns about dig­i­tal pri­va­cy, influ­ence, and security…

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Key Points:

• Pro-Chi­na influ­encers and sus­pi­cious bot accounts coor­di­nat­ed pro­mo­tion of Red­Note as a Tik­Tok alter­na­tive, gen­er­at­ing 22.3 mil­lion views with­in days.
• Red­Note, despite being mar­ket­ed as safer than Tik­Tok, oper­ates under the same Chi­nese laws requir­ing data shar­ing with gov­ern­ment authorities.
• The cam­paign rep­re­sents “per­spec­tive hack­ing,” a tech­nique manip­u­lat­ing pub­lic per­cep­tion to advance Chi­na’s dig­i­tal infra­struc­ture globally.
• This strate­gic app pro­mo­tion demon­strates Chi­na’s evolv­ing approach to extend­ing influ­ence while main­tain­ing data access despite for­eign restrictions.