As Americans flock to RedNote, privacy advocates warn about surveillance

More than 700,000 US-based users have downloaded RedNote, a popular Chinese social app, as the TikTok ban deadline looms — but they may find themselves looking for yet another TikTok alternative soon. A US official told CBS News that Xiaohongshu, the app more commonly referred to as RedNote, has many of the same issues that caused Congress to ban TikTok and that the app could eventually face a similar ban unless it divests from its China-based parent company.

“This appears to be the kind of app that the statute would apply to and could face the same restrictions as TikTok if it’s not divested,” the anonymous official told CBS News on Thursday, referring to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, the bill under which Congress banned TikTok.

Among the problems lawmakers raised in the lead-up to the TikTok ban was the Chinese government’s sway over TikTok’s content moderation practices — an issue that appears to apply to RedNote as well. Per The Information, RedNote has begun removing US users’ posts that are considered “too sensitive” for the app, including posts discussing LGBTQ topics. Three people with knowledge of communications between RedNote and officials with the Cyberspace Administration of China told The Information that regulators are concerned about politically sensitive posts — and Chinese officials told RedNote’s government relations team to ensure that users in China can’t see US users’ posts.

Privacy advocates are also warning against using RedNote. In an emailed statement, Cooper Quintin, the senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said “anyone for whom privacy is a matter of personal safety” should think twice before downloading RedNote, adding that the EFF has similar concerns about US-based apps like Facebook.

“People looking for alternative social media apps should be cautious about the privacy implications of sharing information with an app that has not yet seen substantial public scrutiny outside of China,” Quintin said. “This is certainly not a platform which values free speech – it’s a heavily censored application on which topics such as political speech, drugs and addiction, and sexuality are more tightly controlled even than similar social networks. This is also not a platform that will protect you from US-based surveillance capitalism as it shares data with Facebook and Google ad networks.”