With TikTok being highly popular, suddenly banning the app made the US go crazy. TikTok has become a culture and is on every teenager’s phone. We have heard about a TikTok ban or countless other threats since 2020 in the US, but it has never happened. Until 2025 arrived. The app was temporarily unavailable from being used in the app for about a day before it came back to functioning again. It has been removed from the app store, but it could come back, for all we know. But what if it never starts working again or debits on the phone’s app store?
Creators and commenters influenced most TikTok users to think
that “XiaoHongShu” or “Red Note/Little Red Book” is the best alternative to the platform they love. It’s a scroll-style app like TikTok, but most of the text is Chinese. The Chinese entirely own the app. Most of the creators and audience are also Chinese. Very few parts of the app are in English because it was never intended for the US to make it mainstream. More than a third of Red Note users are from China. The majority are from mainly China. A good chunk is also from Malaysia and Singapore. Suddenly, 3 million joined the app once TikTok became unavailable in the US, adding to Red Note’s already existing 300 million Chinese users. Ironically, the US initially banned TikTok because they believed the company “Byte Dance,” which owned the app, was stealing user’s data and ultimately violating America’s privacy and security policies. But RedNote might be worse or just as bad. Technologists heavily encourage people not to use RedNote, saying it’s unsafe.
On another note, this whole commotion started in 2020. Trump put TikTok under investigation because he saw it as a security threat. Since then, the court hasn’t stopped inspecting it. Red Note’s beginnings started longer ago than TikTok’s. It was released in 2013, versus TikTok’s in 2016. Red Note is targeted more towards females and still is. It was intended to be used for lifestyle, makeup, and, the biggest one, shopping. Americans use it as if it is just like TikTok and don’t follow RedNote’s regulations and policies. It still hasn’t become a concern to the US government, but it will likely be soon. The government replaced one scroll-type social media app that is a security threat to citizens with another one. It almost seems these social media platforms will never be left behind.
Another significant factor to consider is that 170 million Americans use TikTok daily. America’s population is 334.9 million. That means almost half of the US population uses TikTok. That’s something you can’t just skip over. It’s become too loved and used by many to the point where it won’t leave. The best the government can do is make or advise a TikTok alternative that is “safe” and not a security threat to their means. The current TikTok audience will always find a backup to the app they love. In
2025, it will temporarily be RedNote. But who knows, maybe TikTok isn’t gone forever.
