Anti-paywall link: https://archive.is/Ngi8v
As TikTok’s future hangs in the balance, Xiaohonghshu, better known as RedNote in English, is trying to capitalize on its newfound popularity by partnering with US influencers who can help promote the company and bring more Americans onto its platform. The Chinese lifestyle and travel app, which has over 300 million mostly monthly active users, surged to the top of US app store charts last week as the TikTok ban approached.
In a campaign brief obtained by WIRED, Solare Global, a New York City-based marketing agency, pitched creators on making sponsored posts for RedNote, featuring videos of themselves telling their followers about the Chinese app’s sudden rise in the US. The brief asked creators to describe “how fun and engaging the app is” and “emphasize its user-friendly design and international appeal.” It also instructed them to share their own RedNote accounts and encourage their followers to join them on the platform.
That was obvious.
Option 1: a nation of predominantly anti-intellectual xenophobes organically discover a foreign language community and embrace it or option 2: a bunch of influencers from an existing platform are recruited to promote a competitor to a bunch of addicts looking for another fix. Social and mainstream media universally promoted the incorrect narrative.
I wish US citizens didn’t look so much to authoritarian states like Russia and China when they have old friends who they worked and faught alongside for years. These friends have been happily enjoying the benefits of social democracy despite an onslaught of anti-democratic propaganda, much of it from US citizens and their media.
Which brings me to the other narrative that pisses me off. That Chinese media are a national security threat but Meta and X are not. Lets be real. It is all the same shit. Any organized effort to manipulate mass opinion: politics disguised as religion, social media, conspiracy theories, cults etc have the potential to derail rational political debate, elevate populists and hand the keys to a generalissimo and it always leads to mass graves. Left or right doesn’t change the outcome which is shit. We all have to take some responsibility to fight back against this influence. Engage with people who are sucked into this shit and encourage them to disconnect.
Okay folks, I’ve got the pallet of conical hats with the word DUNCE on them, everyone surprised by this please form an orderly queue.
You don’t say? 🗿
I guess they looked and saw the line going up only after they said some shit about wanting to put a barrier in place to stop the influx of Western users.
🎵Meet the new boss, same as the old boss🎵
My account was banned in 2 days. No clue why.
Hard to say- the Chinese govt has a long list of stuff that’s not allowed that app runners enforce heavily lest the app companies get shut down or worse. After the cute honeymoon of cultural meme exchange, Americans are in for a rude awakening if they’re expecting a TikTok experience
Not enough social credits
For those RedNoters who don’t care or don’t know:
In us we call that the credit score 🐸
I think a mini game could be had here. Create an account and post something that’s not overly ban worthy offense like mentioning Tiananmen Square or posting a picture of Winnie-the-Pooh but something subtle and see where the boundaries are. I bet there are lots of invisible lines where ban can be tripped. It could be it’s own community.
And you would be wrong
