Following an executive order from President Donald Trump, U.S. TikTok users are reportedly seeing signs of increased censorship on the app, once seen as a free-speech haven. After going offline for a brief period due to new laws aimed at addressing national security concerns,

Users say they are seeing fewer livestreams, and some activity is being removed or flagged at higher rates for violating community guidelines, including for behavior that was previously permitted.

As self-described " TikTok refugees" pour onto the Chinese social media app RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu, some foreign netizens are already running up against the country's extensive censorship apparatus. Newsweek reached out to Xiaohongshu with a request for comment via a general contact email address.

In a historic development, Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok has become the center of a bipartisan bill to ban the app nationwide in the name of national security. Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at the UC Berkeley School of Information and a prominent scholar in the study of state censorship,

Second, however, TikTok does present a danger. But it’s the same danger all the social media platforms present: they collect large amounts of personal data from users, including teens. (Some call TikTok's collection excessive.) But this is a story we’ve heard over and over.  They monetize invasive information for advertisers, no matter the danger.

With an American TikTok ban threatening the app, users and creators reflect on what it did for internet culture – and what their online worlds might look like without it.

"It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship ... or updating TikTok in the United States. App Store management (including Apple and Google) will need to decide ...

As TikTok users flock to RedNote, there are several considerations, including the privacy of your data. Here’s what you need to know.

The app had more than 170 million monthly users in the U.S. The black-out is the result of a law forcing the service offline unless it sheds its ties to ByteDance, its China-based parent company.

TikTok's services are restored in the U.S. after President-elect Donald Trump pledged to sign an executive order to save it. It's been a wild 24 hours to say the least — starting with TikTok preemptively shutting down the app for users from 10:30pm on January 18.

Trump announced the decision in a post on his Truth Social account on Sunday as millions of TikTok users awoke to discover they couldn’t access the TikTok

INDUSTRY ANALYSTS SAY IT MEANS THE APP WILL BE REMOVED FROM APPLE AND GOOGLE APP STORES. THEY COULD FACE FINES IF THEY DON’T COMPLY WITH THE LAW. 170 MILLION AMERICANS CURRENTLY USE TIKTOK.