2w ago

As US TikTok users move to RedNote, some are encountering Chinese-style censorship for the first time

www.cnn.com /2025/01/16/tech/tiktok-refugees-rednote-china-censorship-intl-hnk/index.html

Summary

Many Americans joining China’s social media platform RedNote are encountering strict censorship uncommon in Western platforms.

One non-binary user had a post asking if the platform welcomed gay people removed within hours.

Posts on LGBTQ+ topics, fitness photos, and sensitive cultural content have been censored, frustrating users unfamiliar with China's moderation rules.

RedNote is hiring English-language moderators to handle the influx. While some users enjoy cultural exchange, others criticize restrictions.

Analysts see RedNote’s growth among US users as a soft power win for China.

158 comments

The fuck did they expect going to a Chinese platform
- Well the tankies seem to think that China is actually a Utopia that the western governments are hiding from us, so naturally there shouldn't be any censorship issues lol
  
  People moving to Red Note aren't tankies and I've only heard people who describe what tankies say that tankies think China is a utopia that our governments are hiding from us. Kinda like Ben Shapiro describing what "the left" people say or do.
- “I’m an American and have a right to free speech, no matter what country the service is hosted in!”
  
  But what if there is no country that “allows” the speech you want to say? I want to call for the beheading of billionaires. I assume you don’t think I should be able to do that?
  
  That's certainly what certain people on lemmy.world seem to think despite the server being in The Netherlands.
- My question is how much of these articles are manufactured outrage. Like, I can't imagine anybody expected anything different - especially since some of this stuff is censored already on American social media (especially LGBT related stuff), and the media has spent 50 years telling Americans how much censorship there is in China and the Great Firewall.
  
  Probably 90% from my personal experience, I see loads of LGBTQ posts on RedNote. I wonder if they're being sensored or just waiting to go through the moderation queue.
  I could see English posts maybe accumulating negative sentiment scores or even just a lack of known words causing a post to end up in a moderation queue.
  For reference sentiment scores are basically a numeric way of scoring a post. Words like "hate" get -10 points neutral words get 1 point, and positive words like love and friendship get +10 points. At least when I was in college, this was a popular way for social media to determine if they should push your content or not.
  
  This is all just leading up to the TikTok savior Trump winning over the youth crowd. If you force them to a platform that is much worse, they will forget how controlling the previous platform was and just be happy to have it.
- You are assuming TikTokers have any intelligence, morals, principle or talent (or even humanity)
  
  This is an extremely weird take.

Yep, hopefully they see that just because the US is shitty that China can't be worse.
- They both suck equally in my book
  
  Then you have successfully fallen for china's propaganda.
  Living and working conditions in China for most citizens are horrific, far beyond even the worst problems we see in the US.
  Source: have pooped through a hole in the bottom of a moving train in China, and also visited a foxconn ~~jail~~ factory.
  
  Not equal, China is better at censorship, tracking, and social pressure. They own the corporations and businesses. Go to other countries to kidnap their citizens that talked bad about them.
  
  They suck and excel at different things. For example the US doesn't have high speed rail while China doesn't have military bases around the globe.

Anyone who has been using Xitter over the last couple of years has already experienced Chinese style censorship.
- Chinese style censorship is more consistent, though. No one is making up rules on the fly.
  
  This is consistent. Anything that makes the racists, fascists, incels, tech bros, and billionaires uncomfortable is blocked.
  
  That is a poor defence of censorship.
- China censors all literature, film, music, and internet discourse employing advanced technologies and multiple tens of thousands of people while also running the world's largest prison for journalist. VPNs are blocked. Apps like Signal are blocked. Online gaming for minors is limited to 3 hours per day on weekends and holidays only. People get harassed by police for what they post online. Many go to jail for criticizing the government, spreading pornography or health related sexual content (including anything LGBT), supporting Taiwanese independence, or casting doubt on Chinese folk legends. Then, in addition to that (which I have not even begun to do justice to), all media companies run their own internal censorship regimes so as not to get in trouble with the authorities. And this rolls downhill: you the individual self-censor to not get in trouble with your boss or worse.
  
  You don't think that's exactly where the US is heading?
  
  Yeah… I don’t think you’re the expert on China censorship you present yourself as.
  I think you just regurgitated every piece of Cold War propaganda & every rumor about Chinese censorship that you’ve ever heard.

Well color me constipated, because no shit.

This is why I’m against using Rednote myself. Just try searching tiananmen square in Rednote and you won’t get any results.
- Someone here was defending it the other day claiming that China wouldn't use it for propaganda purposes because politics is banned there.
  They didn't see the problem with that.
- Oh, well that makes it completely useless then.

Some devs in China must be working overtime to create separate infrastructure for the US so that censors aren't overwhelmed and miss things Chinese people aren't supposed to see. 😂
- https://www.wired.com/story/xiaohongshu-english-moderators-red-note/
- Let's get the vpns ready and use burners! Fuck censorship!
  
  Non-Chinese devices can't access Douyin even with VPN, though.
- Already done I’m sure.

this is disgusting. personally I prefer lgbtq related posts be censored by companies like Facebook and Twitter instead.
cisgender is hate speech, y'all

You can just go on the app and you'll see it for yourself, they don't bite.
There's lots of posts of people asking opinions about LGBT stuff and the platform has a large lesbian community.
The app is originally more popular with women and the norm is to assume anonymous users are female, "sis" is considered complementary and a sign of acceptance.
My Hero Academia is considered cancelled because the manga included a reference to Unit 731, which did some real Nazi shit in WWII.
Chinese politics and history post-revolution is a sensitive topic and generally avoided. If you're planning to go there so you can tell them about Tienanmen Square and how their government is evil, don't bother lol.
There are a few Western fascists trying to get on there, probably in hopes that the moderators won't recognize their dogwhistles (things like 1488, groyper, etc). They banned Nick Fuentes before he could post anything because they recognized the name, and I've seen posts circulating warning about their keywords. Hopefully the moderators they're hiring will help nip it in the bud.
Generally, like, remember that you're a guest and your experience will probably be fine. I've been surprised at both sides being respectful, and people are generally happy to have us. I'm sure there's parts of the Chinese internet that are much less pleasant but RedBook seems like a pretty amiable cultural crossing point. It's a unique opportunity to see another perspective without just going out on your own and there's no telling how long it'll last.
I am taking lots of notes from all the Chinese spies so that I can become a better Chinese spy for everyone here on Lemmy 🤗
- From my experience, it's a place for lighthearted fun.
  I hated using Instagram and Facebook because of the toxic right-wingers always starting shit.
  So imagine my surprise when these right-wing instigators actually get banned when I report them on RedNote.
  Get wrecked idiots, finally a social app with an actual code of conduct.
  
  This is the irony of it all. People are encountering Chinese censorship and realizing they prefer it over American censorship. XD
- Chinese politics and history post-revolution is a sensitive topic and generally avoided. If you’re planning to go there so you can tell them about Tienanmen Square and how their government is evil, don’t bother lol.
  Do you think maybe that's possibly a bad thing?

I suppose the real question is whether most users will balk at this and move to a new platform, or just accept it.
My bet is that they'll just accept it.
- My bet is that they’ll just accept it.
  People won't care until they or an issue they care about is censored.
- It would be interesting to see what the effects are. I've heard that TikTok is the only mainstream social media where leftist content isn't attenuated by the algorithm. Don't know if that's true or not, but if it is, and if we assume Red Note is similar in that regard, and if you bet right, they'll keep getting exposed to leftism without corpo platforms being able to stop it. Unless they do another ban. I'm curious whether there would be a point when the TikTok > Red Note users would realize that and refuse to go back to the corpo propaganda machines.
  
  Out of curiosity, what leftist content do you see there that the “western” social media sites won’t allow on their platform?

Anecdotally, most of my explore is lgbtq posts with plenty of comments and interaction. Some posts are many days old. I'm 100% sure there is and will be further censorship, but I've not really encountered it yet... I've also been seeing articles about there being a large amount of specific content (Luigi, guns, etc) that I haven't encountered at all.
- You're on red note? I never really used tiktok, just stuck with shorts, but I've been considering checking out RN just for the interaction with Chinese folks. Sounds interesting. Do you reccomend?
  
  I never used TikTok either! I'm not super into short video content. I had a macro photography account on IG about 5 years ago with 30k followers; I closed it after a lot of life obstacles but recently started shooting again. I'm not super into supporting Meta, so I thought I'd just see how RN is since it's both image and video content. I've honestly been incredibly surprised! There's a lot more user interaction in posts with so much of it being supportive. There are creators posting there whose content on other platforms would always attract negative and hateful comments - absolutely none of that so far on RN. The CN community has been very welcoming, patient, and helpful to new users. I definitely think it's worth checking out, even if it's just to get a glimpse of another culture!
  
  It has been fascinating. Highly recommend
  
  More effective to just start penpal relationships with Chinese folks you find on the internet. Just write some shit about the T-square and Pooh and if they keep responding you know it's secure.
  
  I guarantee you won’t be interacting with regular “Chinese folk.” There are multiple networks. One for inside the firewall, and one for the people who have been chosen to deliver content to the western market. This is how it has always been.

There's a lot of gay people on the app this is strait up lies. Holy shit my eyes are open to this bullshit
- Gay=/= enby

Damn, who could've seen that circus coming while honking its way over here? Not me.

Mainland Taiwan per usual I see.
I wonder what happens if you post winnie the poo shit.
- They have a lot of pooh posts mainly from the ride at Disney there.

all the lulz

Can't be worse than Reddit.

The entire worldwide LGBT TikTok population should flood RedNote and post pro-LGBT stuff in their native language. Let Rednote scramble finding moderators that can speak in a language that’s only spoken by a few million people. Then those users should leave after a few weeks and leave RedNote with the bill. And then rinse and repeat after a few months.