\n<\/p>\n
Some Rednote users have reported that their accounts were automatically converted from the Chinese to the international version of the website recently. One American user, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid being punished by the platform, shared a screenshot with WIRED showing that when he logged into the platform in April, a banner appeared that read \u201cYour account is a rednote account. We have automatically redirected you to rednote.com.\u201d<\/p>\n
The user says he registered his account with a Chinese phone number years ago, but suspects his account was converted because of using a non-Chinese IP address. \u201cI have never posted from China. It’s always been in the United States. Obviously, in one glance, they can see this is an American posting in English,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
After TikTok sidestepped a US shutdown by selling a majority stake in its American business, most of the \u201crefugees\u201d who had fled to Rednote went back to the video app or to other platforms. Those who stayed often did so because they value reading about and talking directly with Chinese people living in China. They now worry that a corporate split could destroy what had been one of the strongest bridges between the Chinese internet and the wider world.<\/p>\n
Jerry Liu, a Vancouver-based TikTok influencer known for sharing funny content about Rednote itself, said in a November video that he was told by staff at the company\u2019s Shanghai office that international users should expect to see less Chinese content and more North American content in the future. \u201cI feel frustrated. I think it\u2019s just gonna be less fun,\u201d he said in the video.<\/p>\n
Rednote had tried the TikTok localization playbook before\u2014it launched a slew of regionally focused apps roughly three years ago with names like Uniik, Spark, Catalog, Takib, habU, and S\u2019More that each catered to specific countries outside China, but they failed to catch on. The effort could have been a lesson for the company about the value of its massive Chinese content ecosystem to people in other countries, but as is often the case, regulatory and political considerations appear to have taken priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t want to see Americans talking about Coachella. I did that on Instagram, I didn’t join Xiaohongshu to see Instagram,\u201d says the American user who was recently redirected to Rednote.<\/p>\n
As Rednote goes global, the company is no doubt looking to Chinese predecessors like WeChat and TikTok for ideas about how to navigate the minefield of content moderation and data privacy. So far, its approach looks to more closely resemble that of WeChat.<\/p>\n
For over a decade, WeChat has sorted users based largely on one criterion: whether they used a Chinese or a foreign number to sign up. That has allowed users to cross Tencent\u2019s digital border by unlinking and relinking their WeChat accounts to different mobile numbers.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey Knockel, an assistant professor of computer science at Bowdoin College, found that Tencent censors content on WeChat and Weixin differently, even though the two platforms are integrated with one another and users can communicate across them. He says Chinese users are subject to a real-time keyword-matching filter to censor politically sensitive speech, but \u201cif you registered for WeChat using a Canadian or an American phone number, your messages aren’t necessarily under that kind of censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knockel says WeChat\u2019s blended content moderation approach may have made some people wary about using the app. \u201cUsers are generally distrustful of the platform. They don’t know if they’re being watched and censored,\u201d he says. As Rednote moves in a similar direction, it will be worth watching whether international audiences end up having similar misgivings.<\/p>\n