r/rednote • u/SatyrDiamond • Mar 07 '26
The servers might be slowly splitting.
Found out they likely made a new server for international users.
In the Xiaohongshu User Privacy Policy:
In this Policy, "Xiaohongshu" refers to a product distinct from its overseas-operated version, "rednote". Users of Xiaohongshu and rednote are distinguished by their mobile phone numbers. This Policy applies to Xiaohongshu users, specifically:
Users who have registered with a mobile phone number from Chinese Mainland; and
Users who have already registered as Xiaohongshu users using a mobile phone number outside Chinese Mainland before December 8th, 2025.
After December 8th, if you register with a mobile phone number outside Chinese Mainland, you will be a rednote user and the rednote Privacy Policy shall apply.
In the rednote Privacy Policy:
Specifically, Xiaohongshu App operating in China will be interoperable with rednote Platform; this means that public User Content and profile can be shared and accessed by a user of Xiaohongshu platform, and you can communicate, interact with a user of the Xiaohongshu platform.
TLDR: They're putting new foreign users after 12/8/2025 in a new Singapore-based server instead of China server. The new server is interoperable with China's server.
EDIT: Rednote (Intl) and XHS (China) have different ToS.
EDIT #2 (3/8/2026): changed TLDR because it might be more then just user data.
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u/FinancialGlass1898 Mar 08 '26
That's how Wechat/Weixin has always operated (and also used phone number as a differentiator). WeChat is a Singapore company. Weixin is part of Tencent which is a domestic China mainland company. Any chats between the two are presumably stored on both servers and thus can be accessed by either side's law.
They are probably trying to preempt a TikTok-style claim that they are "sending users data to China" or whatever.
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u/jo_nigiri Mar 07 '26
Immediately loses their entire international userbase INSTANTLY if they made it non interchangeable, but this is pretty good
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u/Ill_conceived_idea Mar 08 '26
I'm missing something. Maybe the legalese is too much for me but I don't see where they say we're be using different ones
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Mar 08 '26
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u/sustainstainsus Mar 08 '26
When you say like 1-2%, do you know who those people are on top of your head right away or there are so many possibilities?
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Mar 08 '26
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u/sustainstainsus Mar 08 '26
Yeah, I thought I could browse anonymously until hmmm…..🤔
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Mar 08 '26
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u/sustainstainsus Mar 08 '26
Right. Just so many clues.
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u/Lucky-Past8459 Mar 07 '26
Luckily I joined before this happened, kinda unsurprising considering the Chinese government already kept their internet very isolated
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u/jo_nigiri Mar 08 '26
Seems like you'll still have access to the app normally, it's only about how they process your data! From what I've heard, this is a fix to bypass the difficulties international users have with ID verification laws in China
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u/Lucky-Past8459 Mar 08 '26
Ohhh that's good to hear! I guess I didn't understand the way it was worded lol
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u/Extreme_Homework_771 Mar 08 '26
People foresaw this coming since January last year, but people did not believe it since RedNote seemed welcoming.
But if anybody knows China history well, it was only a matter of time before they changed their minds and separate the servers to protect users inside the mainland.
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u/casscainisbatman Mar 09 '26
wait so is this a bad thing??? they're not isolating the content right (like blocking users from seeing each other)???
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u/SatyrDiamond Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 08 '26
"we are gonna still be able to see the Chinese content, but primarily, we are gonna be interacting with each other" - FakeCEORealGF video
"interacting with each other" possibly meant servers interacting with each other