US family visits China counterparts after joyful exchange on RedNote as TikTok refugees

Two families from China and the United States respectively, who became friends on the mainland social media platform RedNote during a potential TikTok ban in January, have met in person in Shanghai.

In January, many US social media users migrated from Tiktok to RedNote, known as Xiaohongshu in China, in reaction to a then looming US ban of the Chinese short video platform.

Such people dubbed themselves “Tiktok refugees”.

Some shared photos of their pets or kids to pay “taxes” jokingly demanded by RedNote users for them to join.

Brecken Neumann, a 32-year-old real-estate agency owner in Mississippi, was among those who paid “taxes”, with a photo of him holding his baby daughter, who was born last year.

In the first post he uploaded on January 14, he said hello to all, and said he looked forward to “all the new friends we make across the sea”.