The topic of the world's richest man Elon Musk's mother Maye joining the Chinese social platform Xiaohongshu suddenly topped the Weibo trending list on Thursday. Some Chinese netizens analyzed that this might be related to the potential ban of the short video platform TikTok in the United States.
The topic "Musk's Mother Joins Xiaohongshu Comment Section Explodes" once topped the Weibo trending list on the morning of the 16th. As of 11:59 am, the topic had garnered over 43 million views.
Some Chinese netizens analyzed on Weibo that this is related to thousands of American TikTok users, self-proclaimed as "TikTok refugees," flocking to Xiaohongshu. Observations show that some Xiaohongshu users with IP locations shown as the United States posted in English asking: "Why is Musk's mom here?" "What is she doing here! Can someone teach me how to block her?"
Maye's first post on Xiaohongshu was published on April 20, 2021. Her account currently has over 670,000 followers.
The U.S. Supreme Court last week heard TikTok's appeal against the "sell or ban" legislation, hinting at a position to uphold the ban. This means that if TikTok cannot find a new owner by January 19, the platform faces a ban in the United States.
As the effective date of the ban approaches, thousands of American TikTok users in the past two days have been flocking to Xiaohongshu to seek an alternative platform. These users commonly refer to themselves as "TikTok refugees" in their posts.