Americans are joining the Chinese social media app en masse to protest an imminent TikTok ban.

  • American users have flocked to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu in defiance of security warnings.
  • Chinese and American users have engaged in surprisingly friendly conversations about each other’s lives.
  • The influx of American users could burden Xiaohongshu’s censorship mechanism, experts say.
  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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    9 hours ago

    When I saw the headline, this was my first thought.

    But damn, it could have been something cool if reality wasn’t so fucking predictable and ugly.

    I mean, imagine a reality where a bunch of humans end up using the same service like that, between two countries at odds, and they realize that they have a lot more in common than they thought possible. It could be a bridge that changes a world.

    Well, that world, because it sure as hell isn’t the one we’re in

    • Deway@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      The two Spidermen meme :

      “You’re being lied to!”

      “We are?!”

      “We thought it was only you guys!”

      And then revolution all around the world, utopia, happiness forever.

    • atrielienz@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      The Chinese government was never going to let that happen. It threatens their control of their people.

    • callmepk@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      I mean, imagine a reality where a bunch of humans end up using the same service like that, between two countries at odds, and they realize that they have a lot more in common than they thought possible. It could be a bridge that changes a world.

      The answer is Fediverse. From last time I checked while I am in Mainland China, lemmy.world is not banned (yet lemmy.ml is banned lol)

      I am also able to use my own Mastodon instance in Mainland China.

      Fediverse is the key and tool to break the Great Firewall.

      • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        Until they turn their gaze to it. I’m sure it’s trivial to block and monitor due to the federated/networked nature.

      • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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        8 hours ago

        Let’s hope it stays that way :)

        We don’t get to actually interact much with chinese people in China, here in the states. The more all us regular people can get to know each other, the more chance we have of maybe breaking down the artificial barriers that keep us locked into our own worlds

    • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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      9 hours ago

      I mean, imagine a reality where a bunch of humans end up using the same service like that, between two countries at odds, and they realize that they have a lot more in common than they thought possible. It could be a bridge that changes a world.

      There’s a lot of users expressing as much:

          • MintyFresh@lemmy.world
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            6 minutes ago

            I know china has done some pretty fucked up things. But they’ve also built 25,000 miles of high speed rail, and a billion, that’s 1000000000, sq ft of new housing, just in the past ten years. I don’t know what percentage of the world’s solar panels come from China, but I’d bet it’s up there. They brought a billion people out of bone crushing stomach churning poverty in the course of a few decades.

            When you stack up the fucked up things we in the west have done, vs what China’s been up to… If given the option I’d think long and hard about emigrating to china.