Xiaohongshu Photo: IC

Downloads of the mobile app Xiaohongshu on Saturday surged in the App Store's social networking app ranking for Taiwan region, reaching No.1 at one point, after Taiwan regional authorities announced a one-year restriction on access to the Instagram-like platform, on the excuse that the platform could become a high-risk venue for online fraud, local media in Taiwan island reported on Saturday. 

On Thursday, Taiwan region's so-called "internal affairs department" said it would restrict access to Xiaohongshu, known in English as RedNote, for one year, citing alleged cybersecurity risks and involvement in more than 1,700 fraud cases since 2024, according to multiple Taiwan local media outlets. 

However, netizens from Taiwan island noticed that after the restriction was announced, the app at one point jumped to No.1 in the App Store’s social rankings, surpassed Threads, a text-based social media app by Meta which has been one of the most downloaded social networking app in Taiwan, while a VPN app used to bypass access restrictions also topped the tools category, which triggered heated discussions on the Taiwan-based PTT forum about Xiaohongshu’s unexpected surge in popularity in the island, Taiwan-based China Times reported. 

Some netizens described the DPP’s move as “free publicity” for Xiaohongshu, with one netizen commenting that “even people who never used it are downloading it out of curiosity,” and another saying that “The more you ban it, the more people want to view it, which is human nature.”

Another netizen noted that the app “used to be a female-oriented platform, but now it’s breaking out of its niche.”

After the restriction was announced, many Xiaohongshu users in Taiwan island also expressed concerns about the potential impact on their daily lives and work. 

A female shop owner surnamed Xian in Kinmen, who sells local specialties, told the Global Times on Sunday that the restriction on Xiaohongshu has had a “very big” impact on her personally, since many of her customers are from Chinese mainland and abroad. Many customers rely on the platform to find her store and place orders. 

According to Xian, Xiaohongshu can still be used to post content within the mobile app, but some features are restricted. For example, when she shares a post link, the recipient sees a “Please check your network connection” notice and cannot open the content. She also heard that the restriction might be implemented in stages. 

Speaking about the future, she said she is worried that that a full ban would severely affect her business and said she is considering using a VPN to continue accessing the platform. 

A young man from Taiwan island who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Sunday that this restriction, seemingly an administrative decision targeting a mobile app, is in fact a reflection of the DPP authorities’ extreme anxiety and hysteria in response to increasingly deep cross-Straits exchanges and shifting perceptions of Chinese mainland among Taiwanese youth. 

According to data released by the Taiwan authorities, Xiaohongshu has 3 million users in Taiwan island, meaning that about one in every eight people uses the app. Among the younger users, the proportion is even higher, the young man said. 

Through this platform, Taiwanese youth have learned the “pure desire” makeup style, discovered popular snacks from the Chinese mainland, and even begun using mainland internet slang such as “yyds” and “juejuezi.” (“Yyds” is the pinyin abbreviation for “yongyuan de shen,” means “eternal god” or “forever idol.” “Juejuezi,” which is equivalent to “wonderful,” means something so ridiculously good. Both expressions are popular Chinese internet slang used to express admiration.) This cultural “empathy” and “synchronization” have challenging the DPP’s decades-long attempt to push “de-Sinicization” education, he said. 

Xian said the authorities’ justification of “fraud prevention” is unconvincing and appears more like an excuse to target a specific platform. If fraud were the real concern, platforms with higher incidences of scams should be addressed first, rather than enforcing selective regulation. 

Mainland officials have previously criticized the DPP's targeting of mainland apps. On July 16, responding to the DPP authorities' claim that five Chinese mainland apps, including Xiaohongshu, Weibo, Douyin, WeChat, and Baidu Cloud, pose "extremely high cybersecurity risks," Chen Binhua, spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, stated that the DPP's so-called "cybersecurity" excuse only exposes its own insecurity. 

Chen said the DPP authorities fear that residents on Taiwan island will learn the truth about the mainland through various channels, that the "information cocoons" they created will be broken, and that growing cross-Straits communication will bring people closer and lead to deeper understanding.