TikTok customers are pushing again towards the looming TikTok ban set to probably go into impact Sunday by downloading a Chinese app referred to as PurpleNote, which some customers are calling “China’s TikTok.”
TikTok’s ban was largely derived from nationwide safety issues associated to TikTok’s Chinese dad or mum firm, ByteDance, and lots of customers are shifting to PurpleNote as an express type of protest.
Known as Xiaohongshu in China, PurpleNote is a social media platform that features photographs, short-form movies, neighborhood constructing instruments, buying and extra. It just isn’t a one-to-one TikTok clone, and it isn’t owned by ByteDance. It is owned by Shanghai-based Xingyin Information Technology.
American TikTokers who worry dropping the platform have prompt their followers be part of them in downloading PurpleNote to ship a message to the U.S. authorities, in addition to the social media firm Meta, which stands to achieve new customers of its TikTok-like product, Reels, if the ban goes into impact. Meta reportedly used a Republican lobbying firm to unfold unwell will towards TikTok in 2022.
Some have stated that following a ban, they’re ready to do weeklong Meta blackouts, that means they won’t use any Meta apps, equivalent to Instagram and Facebook.
On Monday, PurpleNote was the highest free-to-download app on the Apple App Store, adopted by TikTok’s sister app Lemon8.
Users say that whereas they wait to see whether or not the U.S. Supreme Court will give TikTok an eleventh-hour reprieve, they plan to make use of PurpleNote if TikTok goes away Sunday. Here’s every part it’s essential to find out about PurpleNote.
What is PurpleNote, and what are folks saying about it?
PurpleNote is a Shanghai-based Chinese-language social media app that provides just a little little bit of every part Americans are used to in a social media app. Users can share movies, submit footage, make textual content posts and entry a number of buying options.
The interface is completely different from TikTok’s in {that a} video doesn’t instantly begin enjoying upon the app’s opening and customers should log in to start utilizing it. However, it’s comparable in that it serves content material it thinks every consumer will like.
Although PurpleNote has been accessible in English, some customers reported Monday that it gave the impression to be extra accessible for its American consumer base as its reputation grew.
Some posts Monday on PurpleNote welcomed “TikTok refugees” to the platform.
Other users joked about assembly their TikTok-designated “Chinese spy” on PurpleNote, with some Chinese customers chiming in that they have been completely happy to seek out their American counterparts.
How are memes driving folks to the platform?
On TikTok, some videos of people joking about saying goodbye to their “Chinese spy” (some in Mandarin) have racked up thousands and thousands of views and likes. The memes are a part of a deeper resentment some customers really feel towards the U.S. authorities for shifting to ban TikTok within the title of safety and security regardless that some lawmakers use it themselves, in addition to towards the continued politicization of different social media firms, like X and Meta.
The anger was on full display on TikTok as some defined why they have been downloading PurpleNote.
“I’m going to obtain it on my telephone. I’m going to let it observe different apps. I’m going to provide it permission to see my location and all of my contacts after which I’m simply going to let it sit there,” a TikTok consumer posted. “I’m going to let it sit there as just a little window via which my private Chinese spy can see every part that I’m doing.”
Others had a extra somber tone discussing their choices to obtain PurpleNote, suggesting the U.S. authorities’s intention was to harm its folks, lots of whom have constructed massive followings and full-time careers on TikTok.
“Our authorities, I’m satisfied, loves and thrives seeing us sad and seeing us wrestle and seeing us poor,” another TikToker stated. “Seeing that PurpleNote, one other Chinese app, which is owned and hosted in China, is the No. 1 app within the App Store at the moment is simply lovely.”
When was PurpleNote launched?
PurpleNote launched in 2013. While it grew steadily through the years, its largest increase got here in the course of the pandemic, which is when it rose in reputation.
How many customers are on the app?
PurpleNote has 300 million month-to-month energetic customers, based on TechCrunch. TechCrunch reported that ladies are 79% of the consumer base.
Could PurpleNote be banned like TikTok?
Like TikTok and Lemon8, the quick reply seems to be sure — nevertheless, it isn’t as simple as it’s for TikTok and Lemon8, whose dad or mum firm, ByteDance, is known as within the legislation.
Experts famous that the legislation offers the manager department the authority to deem a rustic a “overseas adversary” and that in doing so it could possibly select to ban an app that comes from that nation. In this case, China is already deemed a “overseas adversary” within the TikTok ban, and due to this fact the manager department might theoretically resolve that different apps from China should be banned.
But lawmakers who crafted the invoice stated in interviews with The Washington Post that whereas it could possibly be used for foreign-controlled social media platforms, the core intention of the ban was to focus on TikTok and its sister functions.
