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Americans flock to Chinese app ‘Red Note’, after fears of US banning CCP controlled TikTok: Here is why India did it and how Chinese apps are dangerous

In 2024, the US Congress passed a bill mandating TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to divest its assets in the country or face a ban.

With the imminent ban on TikTok in the United States, users of the video-sharing app in the North American country are migrating to yet another Chinese app named Xiaohongshu (also called the Red Note).

Founded in 2013, Xiaohongshu is the Chinese version of Instagram. Although it is quite popular in China, it has previously failed to make its presence felt outside the Mandarin-speaking world.

However, things have taken a drastic turn for the Chinese app with the upcoming ban on TikTok on Sunday (19th January). In 2024, the US Congress passed a bill mandating TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest its assets in the country or face a ban.

With no relief in sight from the US Supreme Court, TikTok will have to shut shop in the country in the following 2 days. Americans, who are hooked to the app, are now desperately looking for alternatives.

This perhaps explains why Xiaohongshu held the top position on Apple’s US App Store on Tuesday (14th January). More than 7 lakh new users have joined Xiaohongshu within a span of 2 days.

These ‘TikTok refugees’ are reportedly motivated by revenge against the US government for banning a platform developed by a Chinese company.

Another Chinese app named Lemon8, owned by ByteDance is in the second position on the App Store. Lemon8 came into existence in 2023 and is modelled after Instagram and Pinterest. It also has video sharing option like TikTok.

This is despite credible reports of Chinese apps stealing user information and sending it to servers supervised by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

TikTok had come under the scanner for foreign influence, not removing prohibited content and ties to the CCP. Donald Trump, who had previously voiced concerns over TikTok, is now looking for ways to ‘preserve the app’.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has even been invited to the president-elect’s inauguration ceremony. Some American Conservatives, who advocated a ban on TikTok, are now moving to other Chinese apps to protest its ‘censorship’.

When India banned Chinese apps and the rationale behind the decision

In 2024, a leading security expert Tzeng Yi-suo explained, “Information security risks are national security risks…As long as the app is under the jurisdiction of the Chinese government, there will be security concerns. How the Chinese government obtains the data and what they will do with it is not transparent.”

Another expert Lee Jyun-yi stated, “TikTok does indeed transmit users’ personal information back to China. TikTok’s lack of effort to do so makes it relatively easy for false information to spread.” The Indian government had acted pre-emptively several years ago.

In June 2020, the Modi government banned 59 apps including TikTok over security and privacy concerns. The apps included ByteDance’s TikTok, Tencent’s WeChat, and Alibaba’s UC Browser.

Two months later, the Centre banned 47 related/cloning apps. In September 2020, about 118 apps were blocked by the government. In November that year, an additional 43 apps were blocked. In February 2022, another 54 mobile apps linked to China were banned.

The Ministry of Information Technology, invoking its power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act, with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009 has ordered a block on the use of the apps saying that these apps are “engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order”.

In short, the apps were banned for being a threat to India’s national security. Thereafter, Google removed these apps from their Playstore and blocked access to them in India.

Around the same time, Apple found out that TikTok was spying on millions of iPhone users. The company was forced to take measures to prevent data theft.

Impact of the decision on India

After several popular Chinese apps were banned in the Indian Internet space, it gave way to Indian app developers to showcase their potential to the users.

For example, the Chinese document scanning app CamScanner was banned by the Indian government that provided a large market for apps like Kaagaz Scanner to fill up the void. Another homegrown App called Chingari stepped up to fill the void of TikTok.

Similarly, non-Indian entities like Google, Facebook and others took the opportunity to fill the void for TikTok and launched special features in their apps (YouTube and Instagram) to create short videos just like the banned Chinese app.

The government of India is also promoting India-made mobile applications and encouraging developers to develop solutions for Indian markets in several categories, including productivity, games and entertainment.

In July 2020, the government introduced Atmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge which received close to 7,000 entries from individual developers and companies from across the country.

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