The Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu—better known internationally as RedNote—is scrambling to boost its ability to moderate English-language content after hundreds of thousands of American users suddenly joined the platform in anticipation of TikTok potentially being banned in the United States on Sunday.
WIRED identified a handful of job listings posted to recruitment platforms by tech outsourcing companies in China this week for content moderators who can help manage the unexpected influx of English videos and posts being uploaded to Xiaohongshu. (There were also several new recruitment notices posted looking for content moderators who can work in Chinese, the platform’s default language.)
VXI Global Solutions, an American customer service company that has operated in China since the early 2000s, posted job vacancies on the recruitment websites Zhilian Zhaopin and BOSS Zhipin, specifying that candidates would be “moderating the videos by accounts of foreign friends on Xiaohongshu.” The recruiter even labeled one of the listings “Xiaohongshu overnight urgent recruitment—TikTok refugee moderation, short-term [contracts] accepted.”
Jinhui Rongzhi Technology, an IT service outsourcing company, and Transn, an AI-powered translation service provider, also posted similar recruitment notices this week looking for English-speaking content moderators to work for Xiaohongshu. WIRED contacted the three companies to confirm the validity of the listings. None of them responded in time for publication. Xiaohongshu also did not immediately return a request for comment.
The salary for the jobs range from 4,500 RMB to 8,000 RMB a month (about $600 to $1,100). Applicants are required to demonstrate their English language skills and prove they passed a proficiency exam. One listing noted that the position must be filled within three days, and candidates need not apply if they can’t start immediately.
China’s Cyberspace Administration, the country’s top internet watchdog, has reportedly already grown concerned about content being shared by foreigners on Xiaohongshu. CAC warned the platform earlier this week to “ensure China-based users can’t see posts from US users,” according to The Information.
Social media platforms in China are legally required to remove a wide range of content, including nudity and graphic violence, but especially information that the government deems politically sensitive. Platforms like Xiaohongshu rely on large teams of contractors managed by outsourcing companies to do both routine enforcement as well as respond to emergency situations.
“RedNote—like all platforms owned by Chinese companies—is subject to the Chinese Communist Party’s repressive laws,” wrote Allie Funk, research director for technology and democracy at the nonprofit human rights organization Freedom House, in an email to WIRED. “Independent researchers have documented how keywords deemed sensitive to those in power, such as discussion of labor strikes or criticism of Xi Jinping, can be scrubbed from the platform.”
But the influx of American TikTok users—as many as 700,000 in merely two days, according to Reuters—could be stretching Xiaohongshu’s content moderation abilities thin, says Eric Liu, an editor at China Digital Times, a California-based publication documenting censorship in China, who also used to work as a content moderator himself for the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
Liu said it’s nearly impossible for Xiaohongshu to quickly recruit so many moderators who speak English. “Content moderation isn’t something you can just do through translation tools. It’s a very sophisticated job,” that “requires the person to speak the relevant languages.”
Liu reposted a screenshot on Bluesky showing that some people who recently joined Xiaohongshu have received notifications that their posts can only be shown to other users after 48 hours, seemingly giving the company time to determine whether they may be violating any of the platform’s rules. This is a sign that Xiaohongshu’s moderation teams are unable to react swiftly, Liu says.
China Digital Times previously published a 2020 internal instruction manual for Xiaohongshu content moderators that explained how they should respond to “sudden incidents.” Liu notes that Xiaohongshu is not an app commonly used for political discussions, but nevertheless, the manual shows that moderators were told to be prepared for any accidental political content users might share. Regarding the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, the document asks that moderators be careful to ensure that travel photos from the city don’t include landmarks like the Pillar of Shame, which commemorated lives lost in the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, or depict demonstrators on the streets, Liu says.
As in other parts of the world, content moderation is one of the most tedious and low-paying jobs in China’s tech industry. Social media platforms often outsource the role to companies that hire moderators on a contract basis, allowing tech giants to avoid providing the same benefits to these workers as they do to full-time employees.
While the majority of the new TikTok refugees still appear to be enjoying their time on Xiaohongshu, some have already had their posts censored. Christine Lu, a Taiwanese-American tech entrepreneur who created a Xiaohongshu account on Wednesday, says she was suspended after uploading three provocative posts about Tiananmen, Tibet, and Taiwan. “I support more [Chinese and American] people engaging directly. But also, knowing China, I knew it wouldn’t last for long,” Lu tells WIRED.
The fact that Americans are now flocking to a domestic Chinese social media platform that blatantly removes content deemed unacceptable by the Chinese government demonstrates the ineffectiveness of trying to ban a single app like TikTok in the first place, says Funk. “A more sustainable approach to dealing with the potential risks presented by TikTok, RedNote, or any Chinese-owned app is passing legislation that strengthens data privacy and cybersecurity and requires social media platforms to operate with more transparency,” she says.
Source : Wired
