From TikTok to 小红书

Summary

From TikTok to 小红书 – Today, Explained
Vox Podcast Network | Release Date: January 24, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of Today, Explained, hosts Sean Ramaswamy and Noel King navigate the turbulent waters of the social media landscape, focusing on TikTok's precarious position in the United States and the emergence of RedNote (小红书) as a popular alternative among American users. The discussion delves into the cultural implications of this shift, the changing dynamics within RedNote, and potential solutions to the overarching problems plaguing modern social media platforms.

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1. TikTok’s Turmoil

The episode opens with Sean Ramaswamy detailing TikTok's recent instability in the U.S. market. Approximately a week prior to recording, TikTok experienced an unexpected 14-hour outage, followed by the platform reverting to serving Trump advertisements to American users. This disruption coincided with President Trump's executive order aimed at extending the TikTok ban, raising constitutional questions.

“TikTok is in a state of flux. About a week ago, it disappeared for about 14 hours, even though it didn't have to.” – Sean Ramaswamy [00:00]

“No one knows if that's constitutional.” – Sean Ramaswamy [00:08]

These events reflect the ongoing tensions between U.S. regulatory bodies and Chinese-owned social media platforms, highlighting the precarious nature of TikTok's future in the American market.

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2. Rise of RedNote (小红书) as an Alternative

In the wake of TikTok's uncertainties, many Americans have migrated to RedNote, a Chinese-origin app also known as Xiaohongshu. This shift is not merely a change of platform but signifies deeper cultural exchanges and political expressions among users.

“A bunch of Americans downloaded a way more Chinese app called RedNote and some of them started pledging allegiance to Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party.” – Sean Ramaswamy [00:22]

Steffi Seou, an Internet culture reporter and longtime RedNote user, provides an in-depth look into the app's transformation:

“RedNote, originally known as Xiaohongshu, a little while ago before the wave really hit... It really started in China as an answer to Instagram, which is censored domestically in the country...” – Steffi Seou [02:26]

RedNote was initially designed as a blend of Instagram and Pinterest, catering primarily to young women in urban Chinese cities with content focused on lifestyle, makeup, beauty, fashion, and travel tips.

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3. Cultural Shifts and User Dynamics on RedNote

As RedNote gains popularity among American users, the platform experiences significant cultural shifts. Steffi Seou observes an influx of English content and a departure from its original Mandarin-centric user base, leading to mixed reactions from existing Chinese users.

“There's a lot more English on the app... Historically, a very Mandarin app, Jarring.” – Steffi Seou [06:38]

“There's a lot of criticism now from Chinese users that it's a lot more like TikTok than it is...” – Steffi Seou [06:38]

These changes have led to tensions within the community, as the app grapples with maintaining its original identity while accommodating a growing international user base. Steffi highlights the irony of American users expressing frustrations with their own government by increasingly engaging with a Chinese platform:

“American users are really frustrated with their government right now... finding the most annoying and provocative... way to deal with these frustrations.” – Steffi Seou [05:15]

This phenomenon illustrates a complex interplay between political dissent and digital expression, where RedNote becomes a medium for Americans to indirectly challenge their own governmental policies by aligning with a foreign platform.

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4. The Evolution of Social Media and Introducing the Fediverse

Transitioning from the specific case of TikTok and RedNote, the episode broadens its scope to address the systemic issues inherent in contemporary social media. David Pearce, editor at large at The Verge, critiques the current state of social platforms:

“Social media is not for you anymore... It's about engagement. It's about money. It's about monopolizing your attention.” – David Pearce [15:23]

Pearce introduces the concept of the Fediverse as a potential remedy to these problems. The Fediverse is envisioned as a federated and decentralized network of interconnected platforms, allowing users to maintain control over their data and interactions across various services.

“It's called the Fediverse. It is federated and universe... the idea of it is to take social networks out of being these individual platforms... and just smash all of those things together into something the size of the Internet.” – David Pearce [16:36]

He explains that the Fediverse would enable seamless interaction across different applications, fostering a more open and user-controlled social media environment. For example, a user on Mastodon could interact with someone on Threads without being confined to a single platform's ecosystem.

“If you have a Mastodon account, you can follow any Threads user... your stuff is part of the Fediverse.” – David Pearce [20:41]

Pearce argues that adopting the Fediverse model could restore user autonomy and mitigate the monopolistic tendencies of major social media corporations.

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5. Fediverse: A Path Forward

Sean Ramaswamy and David Pearce delve deeper into the practicality and incentives for adopting the Fediverse. Pearce emphasizes the economic potential, suggesting that building on a federated network could open up vast opportunities for developers and entrepreneurs to innovate without the constraints imposed by centralized platforms.

“If we do this right, the opportunity becomes gigantic... companies that get to build and charge for tools.” – David Pearce [21:32]

He draws parallels between the Fediverse and democratic ideals, highlighting how it empowers users to reclaim control over their digital lives:

“The Fediverse ultimately feels like a reminder to users of social media that they are actually the ones who have the power and the control.” – Sean Ramaswamy [22:42]

Pearce concludes by likening the Fediverse to the broader Internet, advocating for a system where users can customize their online experiences without being tethered to a single corporate agenda.

“It's just the Internet. If we do this right, it's just the Internet.” – David Pearce [24:35]

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Conclusion

"From TikTok to 小红书" offers a comprehensive exploration of the shifting dynamics in the social media sphere, driven by geopolitical tensions and user dissatisfaction with centralized platforms. Through insightful discussions with experts like Steffi Seou and David Pearce, the episode underscores the urgent need for more decentralized and user-centric alternatives like the Fediverse. As social media continues to evolve, the ideas presented in this episode highlight potential pathways toward a more open and equitable digital future.

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Notable Quotes Recap

• “TikTok is in a state of flux. About a week ago, it disappeared for about 14 hours, even though it didn't have to.” – Sean Ramaswamy [00:00]
• “No one knows if that's constitutional.” – Sean Ramaswamy [00:08]
• “RedNote... started in China as an answer to Instagram...” – Steffi Seou [02:26]
• “American users are really frustrated with their government right now...” – Steffi Seou [05:15]
• “Social media is not for you anymore... It's about engagement. It's about money.” – David Pearce [15:23]
• “It's called the Fediverse... take social networks out of being these individual platforms...” – David Pearce [16:36]
• “If we do this right, the opportunity becomes gigantic...” – David Pearce [21:32]
• “It's just the Internet. If we do this right, it's just the Internet.” – David Pearce [24:35]

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Produced by Travis Larchuk | Edited by Jolie Myers | Mixed by Patrick Boyd and Rob Byers

Transcript

[Sean Ramaswamy]

TikTok is in a state of flux. About a week ago, it disappeared for about 14 hours, even though it didn't have to.

[Steffi Seou]

Goodbye forever.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Then it came back and sent everyone in the United States essentially a Trump ad. And then Trump enters office and signs an executive order saying he's gonna kick the TikTok deadline down the road. But no one knows if that's constitutional.

[David Pearce]

Oh yay. Oh yay.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

In the meantime, a bunch of Americans downloaded a way more Chinese app called RedNote and and some of them started pledging allegiance to Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party.

[Steffi Seou]

No joke, we're waiting in line wanting to hand our data to China.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Long live China. Long live Xi Jinping. Big up to Mao Zedong.

[David Pearce]

China is the best country in the entire world.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

I love China so much. First off, Mandarin is amazing. Second off, the Chinese Communist Party.

[David Pearce]

Yes, Communist is the best government in the entire world. Most transparent government in the entire world.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

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[David Pearce]

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[Sean Ramaswamy]

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[Steffi Seou]

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[David Pearce]

You'Re listening.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

To today, explained Sean Ramasforum here with Internet culture reporter Steffi Seou, who's been using RedNote since before it was cool.

[Steffi Seou]

So I downloaded RedNote, originally known as Xiaohongshu, a little while ago before the wave really hit. But I've been following the trends for a few years now. It really started in China as an answer to Instagram, which is censored domestically in the country, and its intent was to operate as an Instagram Pinterest so the demographic really looks like women, young women living in urban cities. It's a lot of lifestyle. It's a lot of makeup, beauty, fashion, Travel tips, things that you would see when you log onto Instagram.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Can you pull out your phone and just tell us what Red Note's serving you right now?

[Steffi Seou]

Okay, so this is sort of like what I'm seeing on my feed. This is automatically what I get.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

I see, like, four videos, and they're not autoplaying. I guess you have to, like, pick one to play it.

[Steffi Seou]

Yeah. So I see a lot of, like, American versus Chinese. Chinese lifestyle content. Like, here's a vlog, the top one. It's just a woman shopping in a Chinese supermarket and saying, like, Americans, is this what you see in your supermarkets? We have mannequins, own drinks. Fen tao is 50 cents.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

A liter of orange juice is $1.80. A little cultural exchange.

[Steffi Seou]

Also, that's so cheap. Oh, here's a video of a Guinea P being brushed. How soothing is that?

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Oh, that is soothing.

[Steffi Seou]

He's so combed.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Okay, so you download this app, Steffi, before, it was cool, but last week, and up until the point we're recording right now, this remains true. It is the number one app in the Apple App Store. Why did RedNote become the destination for everyone who's nervous about what's going on with TikTok?

[Steffi Seou]

So this sort of started, ironically, because users, in their frustration and their ire over what was going to happen to their beloved app, then started saying, you know what? If the government wants us to be afraid of Chinese government surveillance, and I think this is total nonsense, I'm going to stick it to the government and do the one thing that they would fear the most, which is get even more Chinese.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

So you might be the perfect person to ask if the jokes about pleading fealty to the CCP and saying flattering things about Mao Zedong are actually jokes or not. Because I saw a lot of them last week and I really couldn't tell. They were so well crafted. I really couldn't tell if we were joking or not. What is going on?

[Steffi Seou]

I think what it is is that American users are really frustrated with their government right now for many realistic reasons. Right. Because the information cycle around the TikTok ban has been confusing at best and insidious at worst, especially when, effectively, the shutdown became clear that it was very much about supporting President Trump as opposed to an actual concern of surveillance, data mining, et cetera. So I think as a way of expressing their frust with everything and finding the most annoying and provocative. Provocative. Most provocative way.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Incendiary.

[Steffi Seou]

Incendiary. Ooh, you got the thesaurus out. Don't play with him. Yeah. To find the most controversial way to deal with these frustrations. They take it out by making jokes and saying, actually, you know what? The CCP is not that bad. You know what? Mao kind of ate that one thing. So I think that it's not really about the Chinese government at all, because this is really everything to do with their perception of their own government.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

So since you've been on this app since before last week, how is its culture changing now that it's being flooded with angry and maybe less angry Americans?

[Steffi Seou]

Yeah, the culture has completely shifted from when I downloaded Xiao Hongshu. I think primarily the biggest difference is that there's a lot more English on the app. And when I did my piece the Rolling Stone, when I spoke to women in China about their thoughts on this cultural shift on xiaohongshu, a lot of them said the biggest culture shock for them was seeing that much English on the app. Because while a lot of Chinese students receive English education, like, as a second language, it's not really widely used in the country. And so to see that much of it on historically, a very Mandarin app, Jarring. I would also say that there's a lot of criticism now from Chinese users that it's a lot more like TikTok than it is. Because the thing is, like, Chinese people already have TikTok. It's Douyin. So obviously, when suddenly the TikTok refugees, as they call themselves, entered the app, the content itself shifted away from what Xiao Hongshu was originally known for and more towards a similar vibe of TikTok, which doesn't really strike the chord with some Chinese users.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Okay, so that's the downside of all these Americans showing up. But I've been hearing a lot about the upsides, and I know you've written about them. In fact, your article for Rolling Stone that published this week is titled RedNote is the US China Peace Talks. We need. Please explain.

[Steffi Seou]

I think when you open up the app, when you start scrolling through, what you're first really struck with is these two sets of users who historically been separated by a very strong firewall, talking for the first time. And it's not anything that I've necessarily seen before in my lifetime. I grew up both in Shanghai and in America. And when people are interacting for the first time on RedNote, you're seeing people interact and understand for each other these little things that Americans haven't really considered before about Chinese users, like the cost of living, like what going to school is, like what they eat, what they do for work, what they do for fun.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Hello, everyone. Welcome on the TikTok refugees.

[David Pearce]

It's been a tremendous week of you guys coming over and us welcoming you guys. I like to knit, crochet, upcycle.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

I'm gonna quickly run you through 10.

[David Pearce]

Emerging fashion brands in China. I want to talk about why some.

[Steffi Seou]

People say they never encounter a transgender person in China. A cancer medication that they get is about $20 in China, and they are paying $22,000 a month in the U.S. the Chinese young workers typically only earn around 3,000 to 6,000 RMB per month.

[David Pearce]

That's only around 500 to 1,000 U.S. dollars.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

There is, of course, still strong censorship happening on RedNote. I've heard stories that conversations about religion sort of have disappeared or conversations about politics are immediately censored. And I guess what some people who aren't on these apps are struggling with right now is that people are okay with this, that people are okay being censored by some Chinese algorithm or even the Chinese government.

[Steffi Seou]

I think that outrage is so funny because it's so clear that now people who are online and have a history of being online are very okay with the fact and know that many governments, many private entities and corporations are seeing their data. That's the price you pay when you download a free app. And I think that when the TikTok ban was looming and so much of it was around this hype that we need to protect ourselves from China, we need to protect ourselves from foreign governments and the threat that China poses, I think a lot of young people, when they see a ballooning cost of living, rising inflation, a very scarce job market that is pumped full of data collection, job postings that don't actually lead to anything, I think there's a very obvious pipeline between. I think my government doesn't care about me. They care more about this threat that feels less real to me than the threats of my everyday life. And so I think that's why it makes sense that a lot of people are like, you know what? Even if I am not on redno, I'm so mad at my government that on my way to work, I'm going to drop off my browser history at the Chinese embassy. I'm also considering putting my birth certificate and Social Security card and all of my data that I can collect into a physical file and mailing it to the Chinese embassy out of spite.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Does that mean that it's only a matter of time before there's some lawmaker in Congress trying to ban Red Note?

[Steffi Seou]

I think the way I see it, as a culture reporter is culture moves slow when it comes to old white men. So I do think that there is perhaps morally way in that they might not even know about it until or necessarily fully understand it. But I do think that eventually, once they get wind of the fact that it's fully Chinese. I mean, TikTok was always Chinese by association. It was Chinese in the way of like it has a Chinese uncle. It's a US Based company with a Singaporean CEO whose ownership was based in China. Xiao Hongshu was founded by a Chinese founder and it's based in China, in Shanghai, and it's up until last week it was operating entirely in Mandarin. So I think that obviously it makes sense that at some point lawmakers will try and make moves to censor Xiao Hongshu, which for me will be a loss because I need my makeup tutorials.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Just download them all right now while you're still here.

[Steffi Seou]

I know I gotta save them.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Stephanie. Read her on RedNote at Rolling Stone. Also at Slate when we're back on Today Explained, we're gonna try and fix social media once and for all. No big deal. Support for Today Explained comes from Select Quote Insurance Services. Getting insurance coverage can be a headache, especially when insurance brokers offer impersonal one size fits all policies that could cost you more and cover you less. Select Quote says they do things differently and that their licensed insurance agents work for you to tailor a life term insurance policy for your individual needs in as little as 15 minutes. It's like a pair of pants that fits really well but but insurance. That's why Select Quote says they're one of America's leading insurance brokers with nearly 40 years of experience, having helped over 2 million customers find over $700 billion in coverage since 1985. There are some figures for you. You can get the right term life insurance for you for [e-mail] explained. You can go to SelectQuote.com explained today to get started. That's SelectQuote.com explained. SelectQuote says they shop, you save. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever.

[David Pearce]

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[Sean Ramaswamy]

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[David Pearce]

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[Sean Ramaswamy]

Xiao Hongshu Today Explain is back. Our friend Steffi is gone, but our friend David Pearce is here from the Verge. He's the editor at large there. An editor at large.

[David Pearce]

The. Thank you very much.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Hell, yeah, David, social media is in a weird spot right now. You got, like, Nazi adjacent Twitter. You've got MetaMark in his Zuck, your feelings era. You've got the TikTok mess. Supreme Court, this president, that president. Ugh. Let's take a step back from that whole scene and tell us, if you could sum up what is wrong with social media right now, what would it be?

[David Pearce]

I think if you made me boil it all the way down to one thing, I think it's that social media is not for you anymore. I don't know that it ever was, honestly. But this idea that these were networks full of people connecting with each other and that that was like, a good thing for us and for the world. No, we're past that now. Social media is about engagement. It's about money. It's about monopolizing your attention. It's about somebody's agenda for what to do with that attention. It's not about you having a good time. It's about you being there so that things can happen to you. And I think to some extent, that has always been a part of these networks. But as there has been more money and as these things have become more central to, like, how we live our lives, those incentives have gotten so intense and so lucrative for these people that they've just broken the whole system.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

And it's easy to despair. But there is something of a possible solution out there, and you've been advocating for it for some time now. Can you introduce it to our audience?

[David Pearce]

The world can be better, Sean. It doesn't have to be terrible and horrific and full of people trying to sell you stuff on the TikTok shop. There is this thing called the Fediverse.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Say it again.

[David Pearce]

It's called the Fediverse.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Why is it called that? Fediverse. F E D I V E R S E. It sounds like what the federal government would call its internal banking system.

[David Pearce]

I like to think of it as a video game, only for FBI agents.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

The Fediverse.

[David Pearce]

It is federated and universe, and it's a problem because nerds are bad at naming things. But the idea of it is very exciting. And the idea of it is to take social networks out of being these individual platforms where Instagram is its own thing and Facebook is its own thing, and Twitter is its own thing, and TikTok is its own thing and just smash all of those things together into something the size of the Internet and something very big. It would be huge. And that's the thing that's so exciting is that instead of having a bunch of followers and posts and content that lives inside of a little box that some nefarious billionaire controls, you have something that is so much bigger than that, that is open and chaotic, and that anyone can build tools for and anyone can participate in, and anyone can decide how they want to participate in it. It changes the whole dynamic and it's a complete shift in how we experience the Internet now. But let me just give you one sort of concrete example. Think of the Fediverse as basically just a giant bucket of posts. They are a bunch of text or a video or an audio clip or an image, and they come with who sent them. And when you in a Fediverse world can choose any app that you want to make those posts, I can read them any way that I want. In a Fediverse world, you have Snapchat and you post something on Snapchat. I open up Instagram and I can see the thing that you posted on Snapchat. And if I comment on it or like it, it goes back to your Snapchat, where that information lives. And you can be on Snapchat and I can be on Instagram and we can have that relationship. And that's just cool because it means that a, if you stop liking the app that you're using, leaving it doesn't mean losing all of your content and losing all of your followers and losing everything that you've ever done there. You can pick that stuff up and move it somewhere else. And given what we've seen from these social networks, that's really important. There are a lot of people who make their living on these networks now. And then Elon Musk shows up and changes the algorithm so that if you're not spewing right wing propaganda, there's no way to get reach on the platform that hurts people's business. Or TikTok shows up and says, well, instead of doing dance challenges, if you're not selling stuff on the TikTok shop, we're going to bury you in the feed that just kills people's livelihoods. And so being able to pick up and say, my followers, my content, my experience on this platform is now portable somewhere else is powerful on its own. The other side of it is that what it does is it takes a social network and just sort of explodes it into a thousand pieces. So right now, if you sign up for Facebook, you're signing up for Facebook's app. You're signing up for Facebook's content moderation ideas. You're signing up for Facebook's photo compression experience. You're signing up for Facebook's executives and how they feel about advertising. You could break those things into their component parts and essentially say, okay, I want to read posts in this app because I like the way that it looks, but I want this version of content moderation because I think that fits better with how I see the world and what I want my experience to be. You get to just build your experience of the Internet sort of piece by piece, rather than having to sign up for someone's entire idea about how it should be.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Do we have smaller scale? Fediverse is out there already.

[David Pearce]

I think the best example right now is probably an app called Mastodon, which had its real moment in the sun right after Elon Musk bought and immediately started ruining Twitter. So right now, if you have a Mastodon account, you can follow any Threads user, which means I could see your threads posts from my Mastodon app without even having threads. Correct. Your stuff is part of the Fediverse. It's just in this giant bucket of content that I am able to read and respond to. That's pure Fediverse stuff. Right. Like, that is the beauty of this system, is that I can be on Threads and you can be on Mastodon and we can hang out, and that's great.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Is there an incentive beyond, like, idealism that could actually get us there? Because in this country, it seems like the incentives usually work better when someone's getting paid.

[David Pearce]

Yeah, we're not big on idealism in this country at this point. I would say the ruthlessly capitalistic take on this is that if we do this right, the opportunity becomes gigantic. And again, if you build something that's not just the size of Instagram or the size of Twitter, but is the size of the Internet, you can build all kinds of things on top of it. I mean, you can think of Google as just a tool on top of the Internet. All Google does is search a bunch of web pages for you. That's a pretty good business, it turns out, because you can put ads on those search results, and then you have to go to court about how successful your business has been. If we do the Fediverse right, there are going to be lots of those things, too. There will be lots of companies that get to build and charge for tools. There will be companies that get to charge for really cool algorithm ideas about how to sort things or really great apps for how you want to read or watch or listen to the things from there. The moment we're in right now feels like idealism because it's a bunch of happy developers coding against several trillion dollar companies. But if we can make that turn, the opportunity gets really big and much wider for companies.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

I'm going to ask you a big question, David. The Fediverse ultimately feels like a reminder to users of social media that they are actually the ones who have the power and the control. It's easy to feel like, oh, I hate this platform because the guy who runs it. But I got nowhere to go because this is where I get all the stuff that I need, or this is where my income is based, or this is where I found out how to cook or take care of my child or make my face look pretty in the morning. But if we all did something as a group, we could have a lot more say. Is the Fediverse ultimately just like a metaphor for our democracy?

[David Pearce]

Oh, wow, that is a big question. I think it is a little bit of a metaphor for our democracy. It's a question of who's in charge, right? And I think the story of the last two decades of the Internet is that we gave away everything in exchange for convenience and cool features. And we picked the things that were easy to sign up for. We picked the things that made it easy to talk to our friends. We picked the things that shipped to us fastest. And we didn't reckon with any of the consequences of that. And then I think, really over the last decade, the consequences of that started to become really obvious. And what the Fediverse promises is to give us some control. My information, my content, my followers, my network becomes mine again. And I get to choose what to do with it. The process of getting there, like democracy, messy and weird and full of mistakes. But it is. It is the right goal.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

And before we get there, we have to rename it.

[David Pearce]

Can I interest you in OpenSocial web, which is the other thing the nerds like to call it?

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Yeah, please.

[David Pearce]

There we go. It's the people like the social web, which I think is fine. I just call it the Internet. If we do this right, it's just the Internet.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

The Internet. Now there's an idea. Someone call Al Gore. David Pierce, the editor at large at.

[David Pearce]

The Verge, thank you very much.

[Sean Ramaswamy]

Our program today was produced by Travis Larchuk. We were edited by Jolie Myers, mixed by Patrick Boyd and Rob Byers. But wait, there's so many more at Today, explained Noel Cold. I've Artsy, Amanda Llewellyn, Andrea Christensdotter, Heidi Mwagdi, Miles Bryan, Peter Ballin on Rosen, Victoria Chamberlain, Aminah Al Saadi, our executive producer Miranda Kennedy and our senior researcher Laura Bullard. The only one of us who's on Red Note. I recently posted a photograph of my woodworking shop with all my old refurbished hand tools and within a matter of hours I had hundreds of people in my comments and DMs about woodworking. American joinery, Chinese joine, ancient Chinese architecture put together using said joinery with no nails. You know, like things tend to do on the Internet. I'm anticipating that this might go south at some point, but for now I'm going to stay and hang out with my friends and talk about whittling.