China's Streisand Effect

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Banning TikTok Helps Chinese EV Cause

While I’m not here to dictate the merits of banning TikTok, the end result is people who are on the app are looking for alternatives once it goes away. One of those alternatives is the Chinese app called RedNote (Xiaohongshu) and is quickly gaining momentum.

The irony of people adopting a more-Chinese-influenced app as an alternative to TikTok notwithstanding, people are now being exposed to cultures and products people haven’t seen before in the United States.

According to reporting from InsideEVs, one of those product types is Chinese-made electric vehicles. People are seeing them and people are wanting them.

The U.S. government has long wanted to keep China’s EVs out of the North American marketplace, citing reasons from being a security risk to and economic risk. Because of the push to keep everything China out of our hands, the government has actually helped promote China EVs and now people are going to wonder why we can’t have them.

Red Note users are more susceptible to Chinese propaganda than people who don’t use the app — if you can’t see it you can’t fall for it — but the truth is there’s a lot of great qualities in the EVs currently on sale in China and made in China.

The Chinese government will surely adapt to the new English-speaking audience on the app and adjust its propaganda accordingly, but at the end of the day the U.S. government Streisanded itself right into hands of its perceived enemy.

Sure, Facebook and Twitter both have data policies that are terrible. They do a terrible job at handling misinformation and propaganda. What we need is an intelligent legislature that passes consumer protection laws that affect all social media platforms and not just TikTok.

As for Chinese EVs, I like the few I’ve driven. I’m seeing some very competitive products coming from Geely, BYD, and others. I think, on the one hand, they should be allowed to freely compete in the marketplace. But I do understand how their pricing is so competitive, and Chinese access to the U.S. market with no guardrails in place could do more harm than good.

So what would I do if I were in charge?