At least as of this writing, we are still waiting for a decision from the Supreme Court on the future of TikTok, but users of the app are not waiting to find out what will happen.

In the past few days, TikTok alternatives like Clapper, Flip, and TikTok’s own Lemon8 have risen to the top of the app store charts. The most popular of all, Xiaohongshumade its greatest impression over 700,000 new users.

The exodus—prompted by the ban attempt and done out of sheer sadness—proves how futile the effort to protect Americans from a “dangerous” app, which lasted more than five years, really is. . In fact, the effort seems to make things worse in power.

Let’s discuss!

Just desserts!

Repeatedly, the US government has said that its main purpose in banning TikTok is to protect American users from Chinese propaganda and protect their data.

I think it’s fair to say that, unsurprisingly, the government is in disarray. Big time.

In just a few short days, the Xiaohongshu—meaning “Little Red Book” in English—turned US-China relations on their head. The app was founded in 2013 and works like a Chinese version of Instagram. Not only are Americans using videos and images on an app that actively censors content related to Tiananmen Square and shows nothing when searching for “Xi Jinping,” but they vindictively agree for the app to track their data. All around, the opposite result from what the US intelligence community wanted.

Many Americans also provided advice on how to better integrate with Xiaohongshu’s predominantly Chinese user base. A TikTok user posted a video this week asking new American users to “stop talking democracy” on the app. “If you’re Taiwanese,” he said, “and you’re in Xiaohongshu, you’re Chinese. Sorry.” I didn’t find a single piece of criticism in his comment section. In fact, many users thanked him for the tips.

If anything, the attempt to ban TikTok has sparked more interest in China among Americans than anything else. There is a huge influx of TikTok users learning Mandarin by chatting with Chinese Xiaohongshu users or downloading language learning apps like Duolingo.

“Started learning Duolingo and from the creators of Red Note (or Xiaohongshu),” a TikTok user wrote to me. “Even added a Chinese keyboard option to my phone.”

“Downloaded Red Note and had my first Duolingo Chinese lesson this morning 😂,” said another.

“oh so NOW you’re learning mandarin,” the X account for Duolingo posted on Tuesday responding to interest growth.

There was a 216 percent increase in new Duolingo users signing up to learn Chinese, Duolingo spokeswoman Monica Earle told WIRED. When someone signs up for a Duolingo account, they are asked to fill out a survey explaining how they found the app, and the company observed “a corresponding spike” in those users who chose “TikTok” as the reason they joined Duolingo.