By Lily Zhou

Taiwan’s government on Dec. 4 banned Chinese social media app RedNote, citing cybersecurity failure and widespread fraud on the platform.

The Instagram-like app, also known as Xiaohongshu in Chinese—meaning “little red book”—has more than 3 million users in Taiwan, or around one-eighth of the population. It also gained traction in the United States earlier this year when Washington warned of a possible TikTok ban.

Online platforms in Taiwan were instructed to block access to the app from Dec. 4. According to state-run outlet Focus Taiwan, the app remains downloadable in the island but has been rendered effectively unusable.

Taiwan’s one-year ban on RedNote came a day after the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) said the app had failed all 15 cybersecurity inspection indicators.

Announcing the ban on Thursday, the Ministry of Interior (MOI) said in a statement that RedNote had been used in 1,706 fraud cases since 2024, causing financial losses of around 248 million New Taiwan Dollars ($7.9 million).

According to the MOI, RedNote was singled out because its owner, Shanghai-based Xingyin Information Technology Ltd., ignored the department’s Oct. 14 letter requesting the company to protect Taiwanese users’ data. Besides RedNote, the department said, it has blocked more than 45,000 websites between January and November this year.

Xingyin does not have a branch in Taiwan. The MOI’s letter was sent via the Straits Exchange Foundation, a semi-official organization that functions as an intermediary in cross-strait affairs.

RedNote’s lack of legal representation in Taiwan has created a “de facto legal vacuum” in which Taiwan’s law enforcement agencies are unable to obtain information needed to pursue fraud investigations, the MOI said.

The department noted that owners of other social media apps, including Facebook, Google, Japanese app LINE, and Chinese app TikTok, have set up legal entities in Taiwan and showed willingness to cooperate with the government in tackling fraud.

The length of the ban on RedNote may change, depending on whether Xingyin will respond and adhere to Taiwan’s data security regulations, according to MOI.

The department urged citizens not to download the app, and called on global tech platforms such as Google to suspend advertisements for RedNote.

The Epoch Times was unable to reach Xingyin for comment.

Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of the opposition party Kuomintang, criticized the ban on RedNote as ideologically motivated and selective law enforcement and censorship.

Premier Cho Jung-tai defended the decision, saying RedNote has “completely ignored” requests from Taiwan’s government.

“China is a place where freedom of speech is extremely limited. It is unacceptable that they allow this kind of restricted speech to harm our freedom of speech,” he told Taiwan Television.

Cho added that the owner of Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, did respond to the government’s communication, but still needs to improve.

On Dec. 3, MODA warned users of five Chinese apps about their cybersecurity failures, including RedNote and Douyin, in a press conference.

According to the MODA, RedNote failed all 15 cybersecurity inspection indicators. The app reads the storage of devices; collects user data including location, phonebook, clipboard, screenshots, facial features, list of apps, and device configurations; requires excessive personal information; forces users to agree to unreasonable privacy terms, shares user data with third parties, and transfers data to mainland China, Tsai Fu-Longe, director general of the department’s Administration for Cyber Security, showed in a slide.

The slide shows other Chinese apps with similar data risks. Douyin and Weibo failed 13 indicators, WeChat failed 10, and Baidu cloud service failed nine of 15 indicators.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Douyin’s owner, Bytedance, WeChat’s owner Tencent, Weibo, and Baidu for comment.