TikTok users in the US have reported receiving a warm welcome on other Chinese-owned apps amid a looming ban of the hugely popular social media platform.
China-based Lemon8 and RedNote have both experienced a surge in downloads from US users as the 19 January deadline for the TikTok ban approaches, each topping the app charts.
TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance, will be removed from Apple and Android app stores on Sunday if the Chinese firm fails to either sell the app to an approved buyer or convince the US Supreme Court to delay the ban.
The Supreme Court has signalled that it does not plan to prevent the TikTok ban from coming into force, while ByteDance has given no indication that it intends to sell the app.
In anticipation of the ban coming into force, TikTok users have been seeking out alternative social media apps.
“My roommate downloaded RedNote (the Chinese version of Pinterest/Insta) like six hours ago and he’s already saying ‘Big ups to Mao Zedong’,” wrote X user James Ray in a post on Tuesday. “We are witnessing a moment.”
Chinese users have joked to the new US users about being spies, while others have shared pictures of their children and pets.
“This is a pretty strange moment,” wrote one X user in a post on Tuesday.
“It’s the first time in a very long time that Chinese and American netizens are freely interacting without an intermediary or VPN. I doubt it will last long before XHS (RedNote) splits them apart. But I hope they don’t. It’s genuinely beautiful.”
Some users have referred to it as “2025’s Berlin Wall”, with the newly-popular apps breaking through the cyber barrier of China’s Great Firewall.
Despite being owned by a Chinese company, TikTok is not actually available in China. Instead, ByteDance operates a similar app called Douyin in its home country, which is not available internationally.
Other social media apps that are popular in the US, such as Instagram and X (formerly Twitter), are also blocked in China as part of the country’s strict censorship laws, meaning web users in either country rarely interact.
TikTok’s upcoming ban is centred on national security concerns, with lawmakers claiming that its Chinese ties could result in spying or political manipulation of people’s feeds, but such concerns have not deterred US users from seeking out other Chinese-owned alternatives.
TikTok has consistently denied the allegations, claiming that the US ban is unconstitutional and goes against Americans’ First Amendment rights.
