Summary
Many Americans joining China’s social media platform RedNote are encountering strict censorship uncommon in Western platforms.
One non-binary user had a post asking if the platform welcomed gay people removed within hours.
Posts on LGBTQ+ topics, fitness photos, and sensitive cultural content have been censored, frustrating users unfamiliar with China’s moderation rules.
RedNote is hiring English-language moderators to handle the influx. While some users enjoy cultural exchange, others criticize restrictions.
Analysts see RedNote’s growth among US users as a soft power win for China.
Damn, who could’ve seen that circus coming while honking its way over here? Not me.
The fuck did they expect going to a Chinese platform
“I’m an American and have a right to free speech, no matter what country the service is hosted in!”
But what if there is no country that “allows” the speech you want to say? I want to call for the beheading of billionaires. I assume you don’t think I should be able to do that?
My question is how much of these articles are manufactured outrage. Like, I can’t imagine anybody expected anything different - especially since some of this stuff is censored already on American social media (especially LGBT related stuff), and the media has spent 50 years telling Americans how much censorship there is in China and the Great Firewall.
This is all just leading up to the TikTok savior Trump winning over the youth crowd. If you force them to a platform that is much worse, they will forget how controlling the previous platform was and just be happy to have it.
Well the tankies seem to think that China is actually a Utopia that the western governments are hiding from us, so naturally there shouldn’t be any censorship issues lol
People moving to Red Note aren’t tankies and I’ve only heard people who describe what tankies say that tankies think China is a utopia that our governments are hiding from us. Kinda like Ben Shapiro describing what “the left” people say or do.
lemmy.ca has some tankie instances defederated, so it would make sense why you don’t see what tankies are saying
https://lemmy.ca/instancesBut I do agree that people using rednote aren’t tankies.
You are assuming TikTokers have any intelligence, morals, principle or talent (or even humanity)
This is an extremely weird take.
Ikr, that’s the whole world, not just TikTok users.
Some devs in China must be working overtime to create separate infrastructure for the US so that censors aren’t overwhelmed and miss things Chinese people aren’t supposed to see. 😂
Already done I’m sure.
Let’s get the vpns ready and use burners! Fuck censorship!
I suppose the real question is whether most users will balk at this and move to a new platform, or just accept it.
My bet is that they’ll just accept it.
It would be interesting to see what the effects are. I’ve heard that TikTok is the only mainstream social media where leftist content isn’t attenuated by the algorithm. Don’t know if that’s true or not, but if it is, and if we assume Red Note is similar in that regard, and if you bet right, they’ll keep getting exposed to leftism without corpo platforms being able to stop it. Unless they do another ban. I’m curious whether there would be a point when the TikTok > Red Note users would realize that and refuse to go back to the corpo propaganda machines.
Out of curiosity, what leftist content do you see there that the “western” social media sites won’t allow on their platform?
Yep, hopefully they see that just because the US is shitty that China can’t be worse.
They both suck equally in my book
Then you have successfully fallen for china’s propaganda.
Living and working conditions in China for most citizens are horrific, far beyond even the worst problems we see in the US.
Source: have pooped through a hole in the bottom of a moving train in China, and also visited a foxconn
jailfactory.have pooped through a hole in the bottom of a moving train in China
Sorry, but that sounds like an upgrade to me. Pooping has gotten so boring lately, but that sounds exciting! I’d pay good money to experience taking a miles-long dump.
Imagine you’re lost in the Chinese wilderness
“I can smell the train tracks!”
The CCP think of everything
Ive been to China for work. Must be why they have mega cities there. Couldn’t be poor people exist in both countries. Never said I like the Chinese government.
There are more Chinese people living on less than $10 per day than total Americans.
The median household income is close to 1/10th of the US amount.
The US poverty situation simply cannot compare.
They also have a population of over a billion people. What misleading point are you trying to make? The U.S. is literally the richest country in the world.
Living and working conditions in China for most citizens are horrific, far beyond even the worst problems we see in the US.
Okay I hate China as much as the next guy but this can’t be true. CCP treatment of a small subset of its citizens is horrible, but they can get by despite that because they’re able to competently run the country for the rest of the population. There’s an implied consent here of the sort you typically see in stable dictatorships.
It can be true. There are more Chinese people living on less than $10 per day than there are total Americans.
Absolutely not a China stan or anything. I’m pretty solidly against any government that allows the existence of billionaires. But judging a system by the amount of us dollars people live off of is a pretty metric. I have 100 monies, does that buy me a condo or a condom? I have 100 million monies, can I afford to eat tonight? Depends on the cost of living, the inflation rate, so many factors.
What percentage of their populace is homeless, has access to clean water, has access to the Internet? Or if you’re dead set on using the amount of people living off a set amount of dollars, at least provide some info on what 10usd gets you in China, and if there’s a big difference depending on geography?
Again, not a China stan, I think their censorship is shitty, I think their about as socialist as Nebraska, and that the Chinese government has hurt the socialist movement pretty severely by leaning into capitalism and abandoning any truly socialist ideals in exchange for international strength. In fairness, I’m also not a fan of the US. Just so you understand my position here. I’m not jumping to the defense of either, they certainly don’t need my help.
You gotta take into account cost of living differences there or you’re not making much of a point. There are countries in the world where living off 10 dollars a day would make you solidly upper middle class. I’d know; I come from one of them. Either way your claim that living conditions for “most citizens” are horrific doesn’t hold much water when their middle class is still one of the fastest growing in the world.
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted, this seems pretty irrefutable and apolitical haha
Not equal, China is better at censorship, tracking, and social pressure. They own the corporations and businesses. Go to other countries to kidnap their citizens that talked bad about them.
They suck and excel at different things. For example the US doesn’t have high speed rail while China doesn’t have military bases around the globe.
Can’t be worse than Reddit.
Anecdotally, most of my explore is lgbtq posts with plenty of comments and interaction. Some posts are many days old. I’m 100% sure there is and will be further censorship, but I’ve not really encountered it yet… I’ve also been seeing articles about there being a large amount of specific content (Luigi, guns, etc) that I haven’t encountered at all.
You’re on red note? I never really used tiktok, just stuck with shorts, but I’ve been considering checking out RN just for the interaction with Chinese folks. Sounds interesting. Do you reccomend?
I guarantee you won’t be interacting with regular “Chinese folk.” There are multiple networks. One for inside the firewall, and one for the people who have been chosen to deliver content to the western market. This is how it has always been.
I never used TikTok either! I’m not super into short video content. I had a macro photography account on IG about 5 years ago with 30k followers; I closed it after a lot of life obstacles but recently started shooting again. I’m not super into supporting Meta, so I thought I’d just see how RN is since it’s both image and video content. I’ve honestly been incredibly surprised! There’s a lot more user interaction in posts with so much of it being supportive. There are creators posting there whose content on other platforms would always attract negative and hateful comments - absolutely none of that so far on RN. The CN community has been very welcoming, patient, and helpful to new users. I definitely think it’s worth checking out, even if it’s just to get a glimpse of another culture!
all the lulz
