News Desk
TAIPEI — When Taiwan abruptly blocked the Chinese lifestyle app RedNote this month, millions of users saw their feeds vanish overnight. Officials said the platform had failed every cybersecurity test and was linked to more than 1,700 fraud cases. But the ban was about more than scams: it reflected Taiwan’s deeper anxiety that Beijing could use digital platforms to shape opinion and exert influence across the strait.
The one-year suspension of RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu, was sweeping in its scope. Regulators said the app had failed 15 cybersecurity metrics and was tied to $7.9 million in fraud losses. But the deeper concern was political: authorities warned that the platform could serve as a channel for pro-Beijing disinformation, subtly shaping narratives in Taiwan’s contested information space.
Opposition voices pushed back, likening the move to China’s own censorship regime. “We risk becoming what we oppose,” one critic argued, warning that Taiwan’s reputation as a hub of internet freedom could be eroded. The debate underscored the tension between protecting digital sovereignty and preserving openness.
India’s approach has been the most sweeping. In 2020, after a deadly border clash with Chinese troops, New Delhi banned more than 267 apps, including TikTok, WeChat, and PUBG Mobile. The move was framed as a national security imperative, cutting off platforms that officials said posed risks to data privacy and sovereignty.
Some apps have since re-entered under new branding or partnerships — Shein via Reliance, PUBG as Battlegrounds Mobile India — but the bans remain a geopolitical flashpoint. China has challenged them at the World Trade Organization, while India insists its actions are justified by security concerns. The Indian public largely supported the decision, viewing it as a necessary assertion of digital independence. While some creators lost access to TikTok overnight, the broader sentiment was one of national solidarity, and the bans spurred the rise of domestic alternatives that quickly filled the gap.
In Washington, the fight has centred on TikTok. Congress passed a law requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations or face a ban, with a final deadline looming in 2026. The debate has become a test case for how far the U.S. government can go in regulating foreign-owned platforms.
Attempts to ban WeChat in 2020 were blocked by courts on free speech grounds, but scrutiny continues. Meanwhile, TikTok and other Chinese apps are prohibited on federal and many state-issued devices, reflecting a broad unease about foreign-controlled platforms operating in sensitive spaces.
Europe has taken a more regulatory path. EU institutions and member states like France and Belgium have banned TikTok on government phones but sweeping consumer bans have not materialized. Instead, regulators have leaned on privacy law. TikTok, Shein, and Temu face investigations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for unlawful data transfers.
The European approach emphasizes oversight and accountability rather than outright prohibition, reflecting a belief that regulation can mitigate risks without cutting off access entirely.
China itself maintains one of the world’s most restrictive digital environments. Behind the Great Firewall, platforms like Google, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube are blocked. Beijing argues that foreign bans on Chinese apps are discriminatory, even as it enforces its own censorship regime at home.
The mirror-image dynamic highlights the paradox: China defends its platforms abroad while denying foreign platforms entry at home.
For users, the consequences are immediate and personal — but the common thread is China’s role in creating the risks. In Taiwan, RedNote fans suddenly found themselves cut off, a reminder that Beijing‑linked platforms can collapse overnight when exposed to security failures. In India, the public largely supported the removal of TikTok, seeing it as a necessary step to protect national sovereignty from Chinese data harvesting. In the United States and Europe, uncertainty looms as TikTok’s future hangs in balance, with lawmakers warning that the app’s ties to Beijing could leave millions of users vulnerable to surveillance and manipulation.
From Taipei’s ban to Washington’s divestment demands, governments are converging on a common concern: that Chinese apps are not just entertainment platforms but potential conduits for surveillance, fraud, and influence. The responses differ — bans, restrictions, legal battles — but the underlying question is the same: how to safeguard digital sovereignty in an era when the lines between social media and geopolitics have all but disappeared.
