Five years after TikTok ban, Indians also join Chinese ‘refuge’ Xiaohongshu

The logos for TikTok and RedNote, known in China as Xiaohongshu. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Even as the fate of social media platform TikTok hangs in the balance in the U.S. — with a ban being postponed for a few weeks by President Donald Trump — Xiaohongshu, a Chinese platform resembling TikTok, has welcomed “refugees” from the beleaguered service, and many users have stayed on even. Now, a trickle of Indian users are also joining the platform, five years after TikTok’s ban drove most creators and users to rival American platforms like Instagram and YouTube.

The new user base has opened a rare channel of exchange between Indian and Chinese users, and offers a glimpse into Chinese prejudices and perceptions of India. “A friend in China said it was interesting,” Neenu Vinod, a Mumbai-based user who joined after the deluge of American “refugees” joined the platform, said. “I’m getting a mix of American Tiktokers and Chinese people who use the app. They’re helping us with certain things” like the lingo to use and tips for providing translations, she said.

Harish Meena, a self-styled TikTok “oldie”, said last week in his first post that he liked that the app focused on “giving more content and information rather than being an entertainment source”. The post quickly gained over 50 likes, even though Mr. Meena barely has a third as many followers. 

Vanshika Kumar, who has gained a small but sizable following of Chinese users soon after posting, said that users in that country “watch the Mahabharata, read the Gita, and many are also fans of Bollywood movies,” while some “have a bit of a biased or racist view, probably because they’ve learned about India through skewed media”. 

Ms. Kumar joined a year ago, and has watched as a new cohort of Indian users — mostly young adults — join the platform. “It’s refreshing to use a new form of social media,” she said.

Indeed, content by Chinese users about India have sometimes veered into outright prejudice, with some users questioning India’s state of development and urban cleanliness. But there are also users, commenting under posts by Chinese tourists posting from India for instance, who marvel at their “helpful” and “competent” Indian colleagues and classmates in multinational firms and universities abroad. 

Sometimes, Indian users join the conversation. Under a professionally cut Mandarin video explainer on India’s ambitions — which included a surprisingly detailed segment on Centre–State relations and their fiscal facets — one user from Uttar Pradesh defended (in Chinese, of course) the State’s law and order situation. 

Xiaohongshu doesn’t appear to be following any of the social media regulations that American firms have got accustomed to. Even the one-time passcodes to create an account are delivered over WhatsApp, not over SMS. However, amid a thaw in Indo-Chinese relations, it is far from given that the app will be embroiled in the en masse bans of Chinese apps that occurred after the 2020 border skirmishes. 

For users, the geopolitics are far from focus. Ms. Vinod, for instance, cited the degradation of other social media platforms like X, formerly Twitter. Citing the noxious turn content on X has taken, she has started spending more time on Bluesky, the X alternative largely seen as a haven for liberal-leaning microbloggers. “It would be good if all of us get into these apps and get rid of Facebook and Twitter,” Ms. Vinod said.