Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), left, and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) hold a Democratic press conference regarding the potential TikTok ban, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday, Jan 16, 2025. With access to an online population of one billion and an army of hardworking, resourceful engineers, China’s Internet platforms are world-class in their design, functionality and user experience — as is demonstrated by TikTok and now by RedNote, or Xiaohongshu in Chinese. — The New York Times
The Chinese social media app RedNote is full of cute, heartwarming moments after about 500,000 American users fled to it last week to protest the looming US government ban on TikTok.
Calling themselves “TikTok refugees”, these users paid the “cat tax” to join RedNote by posting cat photos and videos. They answered so many questions from their new Chinese friends: Is it true that in rural America every family has a large farm, a huge house, at least three children and several big dogs? That Americans have to work two jobs to support themselves? That Americans are terrible at geography and many believe that Africa is a country? That most Americans have two days off every week?
