The new US president, Donald Trump, has given TikTok a reprieve one day after a law came into effect banning the Chinese-owned app in the US on national security grounds. Trump, who has previously expressed admiration for TikTok, has promised to issue an executive order to suspend the ban’s enforcement for 60 to 90 days. And TikTok has now begun restoring services to its roughly 170 million users in the country.
Over the past week, as the ban drew nearer, a large number of American TikTok users flocked to a Chinese social media app called Xiaohongshu. The platform, which translates to “little red book” and is being called RedNote by many, surged to top position on the US Apple Store on January 14, with over 700,000 new users. Chinese users have greeted the so-called “TikTok refugees” by producing more English language content.
