The TikTok ban and RedNote’s rise expose a grim truth: the dream of a borderless Internet is unraveling as the US and China wage a battle for digital control
It’s actually just a funny coincidence, though it’s funny when people freak out about it. Mao’s “little red book” is written 红宝书, while the app is 小红书, so the connection is only really there in English. Red is a reference to two institutions the creator was involved with, Stanford Business School and Bain & Company, both of which use red as their main color (I imagine the general association of red with good luck may have factored in as well). As for note vs book, I mean, a notebook is a “little book,” and note is short for notebook (e.g. Death Note).
If you actually look at the app and what gets posted there and what doesn’t, it’s pretty silly to assume it’s a reference. It was originally called “Hong Kong Shopping Guide” and was targeted towards tourists, the userbase skews female and relatively well off. It’s like Instagram, there’s lots of cat posts and the the like, lots of fashion, I’ve come across some pretty impressive furries, and it’s even got a decent sized queer community, particularly popular with lesbians.
Even if it were an intentional reference to Mao’s book, like, so what? The users are the ones putting out content and they’re just regular people. Not everything is some sinister plot.
I think most people know it too. They protest because they have already got hacked a dozen or two times, advertisers steal all data not locked down, and the government scoops up all of that. So they question “what can China do to me that hasn’t already been done. My data and privacy has already been made worthless”
Yeah I hear a lot of people asking why it matters if someone has their data cause it must be worthless by now.
I often think the governments wouldn’t be fighting this hard to track people if it was.
First of all, the name doesn’t translate to “Little Red Note”, but “Little Red Book.”
Second, Little Red Book is literally the nickname of a Chinese political publication called Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung.
Sorry, that name isn’t cute at all.
It’s actually just a funny coincidence, though it’s funny when people freak out about it. Mao’s “little red book” is written 红宝书, while the app is 小红书, so the connection is only really there in English. Red is a reference to two institutions the creator was involved with, Stanford Business School and Bain & Company, both of which use red as their main color (I imagine the general association of red with good luck may have factored in as well). As for note vs book, I mean, a notebook is a “little book,” and note is short for notebook (e.g. Death Note).
If you actually look at the app and what gets posted there and what doesn’t, it’s pretty silly to assume it’s a reference. It was originally called “Hong Kong Shopping Guide” and was targeted towards tourists, the userbase skews female and relatively well off. It’s like Instagram, there’s lots of cat posts and the the like, lots of fashion, I’ve come across some pretty impressive furries, and it’s even got a decent sized queer community, particularly popular with lesbians.
Even if it were an intentional reference to Mao’s book, like, so what? The users are the ones putting out content and they’re just regular people. Not everything is some sinister plot.
LOL my god, it’s really that in-your-face blatant?!
I think most people know it too. They protest because they have already got hacked a dozen or two times, advertisers steal all data not locked down, and the government scoops up all of that. So they question “what can China do to me that hasn’t already been done. My data and privacy has already been made worthless”
Yeah I hear a lot of people asking why it matters if someone has their data cause it must be worthless by now.
I often think the governments wouldn’t be fighting this hard to track people if it was.