Many users and opposition politicians accuse Taiwan's ruling party of overreach and damaging island's reputation for open Internet access. — SCMP
Taiwan’s ban on mainland Chinese social media app RedNote has sparked fierce pushback on the island, making the platform a top download as users rush to access it through workarounds.
The island’s interior ministry announced on Thursday it had ordered local telecoms and internet providers to block access to the app, also known as Xiaohongshu, for one year over “rising online fraud cases”. Authorities also cited a “lack of cooperation from its operator in Shanghai”.
But the move has unleashed a wave of public criticism, with many accusing Taiwan’s ruling independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of overreach and damaging the island’s reputation for open internet access.
According to the ministry, RedNote has more than 3 million active users in Taiwan. Many are young women who rely on the platform for beauty, fashion, travel and lifestyle content.
On Monday, users reported that the app’s pages began failing to load owing to the block, forcing them to use VPNs and other workarounds.
Opposition politicians, analysts and influencers in Taiwan argued that the ban had backfired.
They pointed to RedNote’s rise to the top of app store charts and the fact that one of the most downloaded utility apps in the same period was a VPN service, suggesting users were seeking to circumvent restrictions.
“The more you ban, the more people want it,” said popular influencer Cheap, who has more than 1 million followers.
“The government’s warning has become the best free advertising,” he added, calling it a textbook case of prohibition fuelling curiosity.
Online reaction to the ban has been overwhelmingly critical.
Many users argued that fraud was far more prevalent on internationally based platforms widely used in Taiwan, such as Facebook and Line.
Some mocked the ban as “reverse marketing”, while others warned Taiwan risked sliding towards the kind of digital controls long associated with authoritarian regimes.
One user said the ban was “politically motivated because Xiaohongshu is a Chinese platform, and the DPP fears it could influence young people in Taiwan”.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Since the DPP came to power in 2016 and refused to accept the one-China principle, the mainland has ramped up military and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan.
Most countries, including the United States, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-ruled island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.
An online poll over the weekend by “impolite-tw”, a political satire group that operates a channel on YouTube, found that 85% of some 160,000 respondents said the ban would not help fight fraud, while just 8% thought the decision was effective.
“RedNote isn’t about politics,” a university student who uses the app for fashion tips told a local television channel. “It’s about finding make-up advice, good food and travel ideas.”
Taiwanese officials have insisted the ban is strictly about law enforcement. They said that, since 2024, the RedNote app had been “involved in 1,706 fraud cases, causing financial losses exceeding NT$247.68mil (RM32.74mil or US$7.9mil)”.
According to Liu Shyh-fang, Taiwan’s interior minister, RedNote had repeatedly ignored requests to comply with local investigations and cybersecurity requirements.
The island’s digital affairs ministry said the app failed all 15 categories of a cybersecurity assessment, citing issues like unauthorised access to location data, contacts and storage, as well as the transmission of user information to servers in mainland China, where security laws could compel companies to hand over data.
DPP lawmakers further argued that while Taiwan welcomed diverse media sources, social platforms operating on the island must comply with the same standards.
“There is no special privilege for Chinese apps,” legislative caucus whip Chung Chia-pin said.
But opposition politicians countered that the government had targeted RedNote because of its mainland origins rather than fraud concerns.
Cheng Li-wen, chairwoman of the Kuomintang, Taiwan’s main opposition party, said RedNote did not rank among the top platforms for scams on the island and that Facebook accounted for more than 50,000 reports in one recent month alone.
“This is selective censorship,” Cheng added. “The DPP is building a great firewall.”
Political commentators said the ban could backfire for Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te’s administration, especially among younger voters who feel targeted.
Julian Kuo, a popular commentator and former DPP legislator, called the decision “stupid to the extreme”, adding that Lai was “offending the very people whose support he most needs”.
Huang Yang-ming, another commentator, cited the “3 million RedNote users in Taiwan”.
“Those who rely on it will continue using VPNs, while blaming the DPP for making life harder,” he said. “If fraud just moves elsewhere, the ban accomplishes nothing.”
Meanwhile, a number of observers have raised concerns over whether the one-year ban exceeds what Taiwan’s fraud crime prevention law permits.
Some argued the law only authorised temporary emergency suspensions during active investigations, not long-term shutdowns.
Kuei Hung-chen, a professor of public policy at Shih Hsin University in Taipei, said the ban “stretches government power beyond legal limits” and “risks setting a precedent for broader internet control”.
Kuei voiced fears that amendments being considered by ruling party lawmakers – including expanding police authority to shut down platforms – could push Taiwan to become the kind of “police state” the DPP has historically criticised.
Still, some cybersecurity researchers said the government acted reasonably, given the scale of user data risks and RedNote’s refusal to cooperate.
According to Yisuo Tzeng, an associate research fellow in cybersecurity at the Institute for National Defence and Security Research, a Taiwanese think tank, “if legal conditions are met, authorities must enforce the law”. – South China Morning Post
