• A Chinese social media app called Xiaohongshu is one of the biggest winners from a looming TikTok ban.

• It’s so popular in the US that Chinese users have started a new hashtag to welcome Americans.

• The cultural exchange frenzy has spawned, among other things, posts from people asking for help with their English homework.

A Chinese social media platform has become so popular in the United States that it is the most downloaded iPhone app this week – and has become the site of a sudden cultural exchange between East and West.

Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, took the top spot in the US Apple Store rankings this week as a divest-or-ban law threatens to cut off American access to TikTok.

The app, commonly referred to as China’s version of Instagram, has been flooded with posts from Chinese users welcoming the influx of US newcomers.

A post titled “Americans, please help me” went viral on Monday, receiving over 10,000 comments after its poster from Zhejiang asked for help with English homework.

Other popular posts also featured users who listed their location as the United States and offered to help Chinese users with their homework.

“Ask me questions! I can help you with your English homework or answer questions about America (Texas). Thank you for welcoming us TikTok refugees,” one post reads. In response, several commenters uploaded photos of English-language worksheets.

The surge in American users of Chinese apps has also led to a rise in the hashtag #TikTokRefugee on Xiaohongshu, with dozens of Chinese YouTubers posting guides on how to use the platform. The hashtag itself has been viewed over 64 million times, according to Business Insider.

“When you see a video that’s nothing short of awesome, just comment 6, 66 or 666,” Big Tooth Chinese Redneck, a user wearing a cowboy hat, said in a viral video, referring to a Chinese internet slang term.

The sudden interest in Chinese social media platforms comes as TikTok continues to challenge the divest-or-ban law passed by the Senate in April. By law, TikTok must cease operations in the United States on January 19 if its China-based owner Bytedance does not sell the app.

The divestment and prohibition law was passed amid widespread security concerns that the Chinese government could access user data if Bytedance continued to own the platform. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew told the Wall Street Journal in 2023 that such concerns were unfounded because the company would work with Oracle to store user data in the United States.

TikTok took its case to the Supreme Court on Friday, saying it will face “dark business” in January if the court doesn’t extend its divestment deadline. The court is expected to decide the company’s fate this week.

There’s a lot at stake for TikTok now – the company lost a legal battle in December when it took the case to a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

In December, President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to suspend the law until after his inauguration. Trump is scheduled to take office on January 20th.

Allowing TikTok to operate in the U.S. is a reversal of Trump’s political stance toward the company. Trump pushed for a TikTok ban in 2020, when he was still president. But more recently, the president-elect told reporters in December that he has a “warm heart” for TikTok.

Still, TikTok’s troubles have brought unexpected benefits for platforms like Xiaohongshu and Lemon8, both of which rose to the top two spots in Apple’s App Store rankings. Lemon8 is also owned by Bytedance.

Meagan Loyst, founder of investor collective Gen Z VCs, told Business Insider on Monday that users were flocking to these platforms to protest the government’s planned TikTok ban.

“It’s really just retaliation against the government in the simplest sense, but in a way that Generation Z cares deeply about,” Loyst said.

Representatives for TikTok and Xiaohongshu did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Read the original article on Business Insider