RedNote Shows The Looming Futility Of Banning TikTok

[rcjordan]

To pretend that banning TikTok would fix the whole problem of manipulation from abroad is ignorant at best. It's even more deeply ignorant to think that the US government can control internet users. ...

With a court challenge to the TikTok ban pending, social media users are already looking for alternatives to social media owned, operated, and manipulated by US oligarchs. The main beneficiary of this quest for a TikTok replacement has been RedNote, also known as RED and Little Red Book. It's the #1 downloaded app on US app stores, with the #2 app being another Chinese app. It's clear that US citizens aren't happy with being told that they aren't allowed to communicate with Chinese netizens.

Trying to ban these other "Chinese Insta" apps would be an endless game of whack-a-mole.

The gist of the above lifted from this meh article:
RedNote (小红书) Shows The Looming Futility Of Banning Chinese EVs - CleanTechnica
https://cleantechnica.com/2025/01/14/rednote-%E5%B0%8F%E7%BA%A2%E4%B9%A6-shows-the-looming-futility-of-banning-chinese-evs/

>meh article

China and other countries have shown they can quash -or even sculpt- the internet for the masses.

[ergophobe]

I'm not sure what the end game is.

It seems like the obvious end game would be a US-controlled subsidiary (verified how?) with no offshore data storage???

[grnidone]

The thing that few are reporting on is just how much money TikTok shop does.

https://influencermarketinghub.com/tiktok-shop-stats/

Not to mention that content creators make money on views.

TikTok...contributed $24.2 billion to U.S. gross domestic product last year" (Lorenz, 2024). Further, the LA Times says that the TikTok Shop marketplace "sells about $7 million worth of products a day in the U.S." (Ding, 2023)."

https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mje/2024/10/31/tiktok-shop-takeover-the-economics-behind-tiktok-shops-success/

If TikTok goes away, I do think it will be a measurable effect on the US economy.