US TikTok content creators flee to  alternative Chinese app as ban looms

With TikTok facing an imminent shutdown in the United States, American content creators have taken flight — to another Chinese social media app.

Xiaohongshu, known as Red Note in English, surged to the top of the Apple App Store downloads on Monday as users flocked to its Instagram-meets-Pinterest style layout.

"Oh, you don't want the Chinese to have our very sensitive personal data?" influencer Jen Hamilton asked sarcastically in a video sent to her 3.9 million followers on TikTok, advertising her move.

The US government passed a law last year that forced TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, to either sell the wildly popular platform or shut it down. It goes into effect Sunday.

While critics of the legislation have argued it curtails free speech, the US government has alleged TikTok allows Beijing to collect data and spy on users and is a conduit to spread propaganda.

China and ByteDance strongly deny the claims.

Users like Hamilton aren't concerned.

"It is impossible how little I care that the Chinese (have) my data," she said in her video, sharing a joke about a user that "changed their username to their social security number" so alleged spies could "get promoted faster."

"Come on over," she said to her fellow "TikTok refugees."

That Xiaohongshu's platform is almost entirely in Mandarin seems not to be deterring curious Americans.

'Serious consequences'

Meanwhile, two Democratic lawmakers on Monday urged Congress and President Joe Biden to extend the January 19 deadline.

Senator Edward Markey said he planned to introduce legislation to delay the deadline by which ByteDance must sell TikTok or face a ban by an additional 270 days.

"A ban would dismantle a one-of-a-kind informational and cultural ecosystem, silencing millions in the process," Markey said Monday.

"A TikTok ban would impose serious consequences on millions of Americans who depend on the app for social connections and their economic livelihood. We cannot allow that to happen."

President-elect Donald Trump has asked the court to delay implementation of the law, arguing he should have time after taking office on January 20 to pursue a "political resolution" to the issue.

Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat, on Monday urged Biden and Trump "to put a pause on this ban so 170 million Americans don't lose their free speech. Millions of Americans' livelihood will be ended if this ban takes place."

TikTok has some 170 million users in the United States.

If the court does not block the law by Sunday, new downloads of TikTok on Apple or Google app stores would be banned, but existing users could continue to access the app for some period. Services would degrade and eventually stop working as companies will be barred from providing support.