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By Shane Croucher
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With Chinese-owned TikTok facing a ban in the U.S. on January 19 over national security concerns, its 170 million users in America are left looking for alternative platforms. One to have emerged at the top is RedNote—which is also owned by a Chinese tech company.
Some experts suggested RedNote raises similar national security questions as TikTok, whose owner ByteDance denies that it poses any such threat, because it also falls under the jurisdiction of Beijing's authoritarian rulers, the Chinese Communist Party.
Shanghai-based Xingyin Information Technology is the owner of RedNote, known as Xiaohongshu in China. Newsweek reached out to Xiaohongshu via a general contact email for comment.
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So with TikTok facing an imminent ban in the U.S. unless its Chinese owners divest, should the increasingly popular RedNote follow? Newsweek put the question to some experts and here's what they said.
Bruce Schneier: Regulate, Don't Ban
No—we shouldn't ban RedNote, or TikTok. We should regulate all companies in this space.
Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist.
Justin Sherman: Risk Doesn't Equal Need for a Ban
RedNote's downloads are surging, which equals a growing reach in the United States over some other apps.
But it also doesn't collect much data that can't be acquired elsewhere, such as by hacking U.S. data aggregators with bad security practices or exploiting huge privacy gaps in the mobile ad bidding ecosystem.
Getting the balance right isn't just about avoiding unproductive whack-a-mole; it's about not distracting from serious risks, not imagining a 'risk' equals needing a ban, and not shooting American national security and economic credibility in the foot in the process.
Justin Sherman is CEO of Global Cyber Strategies and author of the forthcoming book Technology and National Security Collide.
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Ashley Keller Nelson: Others Ban U.S. Apps. Why Can't We Too?
It is easy to say yes to a U.S. ban because of the precedent with TikTok.
The national security concerns with the CCP's having access to subscribers' browsing, location, and financial transaction history are concerning, just like with TikTok. India also banned TikTok for security issues.
Others may argue that RedNote is not a security threat because subscribers choose to use the app and know there is a trade-off for some privacy issues, and no known threat exists.
The U.S. government needs to think long-term with social media apps developed outside the country. The Chinese government strictly controls internet usage and has created a "Great Firewall" policy that regulates online activities.
The CCP has banned Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, Pinterest, Twitter, WhatsApp, and YouTube. Russia, North Korea, and Iran ban U.S. social media apps for mostly censorship reasons.
In the end, what is so special about the U.S. banning a non-U.S. app? Nothing.
Ashley Keller Nelson is senior professor of practice at the AB Freeman School of Business, Tulane University.
Aynne Kokas: Bans Miss the Point
The United States needs much stronger oversight over apps that gather data in the United States. Just banning prominent apps misses the point.
There are less popular Chinese apps that gather data in the United States. A more safe and secure digital ecosystem that tracks how data about users is gathered and sold globally is necessary to protect US national security interests.
Aynne Kokas is professor of media studies and the C.K. Yen Professor at the Miller Center, University of Virginia.
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