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'TikTok refugees' are flocking to China's social media app RedNote. This is …
Euronews Business / VideoElephant
As Americans are preparing to say goodbye to TikTok due to the potential ban in the coming days, they're also saying so long to their "personal Chinese spy".
The trend sees people mocking the US government's national security concerns over using TikTok along with creators declaring they are not moving across to the likes of Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts or Lemon8 - in fact, they would sooner share their data directly with the Chinese government.
It comes as the Chinese app RedNote aka Xiaohongshu (translated means "little red book") has seen an influx of American users join the platform and currently is the No.1 free app in the US App Store.
"I want to speak directly to the Chinese spy who has been watching over me," TikToker @claxmcb said, as he thanked them for Addison Rae, the "crossed-eyed Filipino girl", "all the people eating in their cars," the "unparalleled LeBron-glazing sports edits", the "Hawk Tuah videos," all to an emotional music track.
@claxmcb bye gng #fyp #sophie #tiktokban #banned #fypシ
The video received over 3.8m views, where people were also speaking about getting emotional in the comments section.
One person wrote: "This humor wouldn’t work anywhere else but TikTok I’m gonna miss you guys".
"Goodbye my Chinese Spy [cry]," another person said, while someone else added: "Don’t smile because it’s over, cry because it happened".
TikToker @yneeky shared a quick message she had for her "personal Chinese spy who has been spying on me through this app for five years and now the app is getting banned will no longer be able to".
She then said in Mandarin: "Thank you! Bye bye! I love you. You're my bestie," and the clip now has 3.3m views.
"I’m going to miss mine, too! Now all I have left is my personal CIA agent who is watching me on all my other apps. He’s not as fun," one commenter joked.
"I’m becoming penpals with mine," said another, while someone else quipped: "No one loves me like they love me".
@yneeky #tiktokban #fyp #fypシ #foryoupage
TikToker @saltyjimmy went viral for his video pretending to be a Chinese spy where he said: "I'm your personal Chinese spy, I've been spying on you for the past five years. We did a great job, it was a wonderful experience and it's time to say goodbye."
He added: "I'm going to miss you my friend," while "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa (feat. Charlie Puth) played in the background.
@saltyjimmy bye my friend #foryou #fyp #tiktokban #tiktokbanned
This video has 4.6m views, with 855,000 likes as people left comments similarly cracking jokes.
"Hey I forgot my Hulu password, you still have that stored somewhere right?" one person asked.
Another person said: "I’m so sorry for those days I made you work 20 hours. So so so sorry," and "pls don't go! I'll give you my social security number," someone else wrote.
“It is a great honor to spy on you for the last few years,” TikToker @yanxiao1003 said in a video which has over 20m views. “I wish you all have a great life in the future... Laura from California, you shouldn’t drink that much Coca-Cola, it’s bad for your health.”
@yanxiao1003 No gathering lasts forever #tiktokban #chinesespy
One person commented: "Do we get assigned a new spy when we join Rednote? Or is there an app transfer program?"
"This is the hardest goodbye," another person said, with a third person added: "Thank you. You’re not just a spy, you’re family".
Elsewhere, US TikTok ban: What will happen and how you can still access the social media appand Americans flock to Chinese app RedNote ahead of potential TikTok ban.
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