Taiwan on Thursday announced an immediate one-year ban on the Chinese social media network Xiaohongshu, saying the app posed a risk of fraud.
Taiwan’s interior ministry said in a statement that it will block access to Xiaohongshu, also known in English as Rednote, calling it a potential “high-risk area for online shopping fraud.”
Authorities linked the platform to about 1,700 fraud cases that caused financial losses of over 247.7 million New Taiwan dollars ($7.9 million) since 2024, the ministry said. The app has over 3 million users on the island, the ministry said.
Officials also said that Taiwanese law enforcement agencies face “significant difficulties” obtaining necessary information because Taiwan lacks jurisdiction over the company.
The interior ministry said the app failed all 15 indicators in cybersecurity tests conducted by the National Security Bureau.
Taiwan’s internet service providers were instructed to block access to the app, Deputy Minister of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan said in a press conference Thursday.
The ministry also urged international platforms such as Google to “completely cease publishing Xiaohongshu advertisements.”
Authorities reminded the public not to download the app or stop using it if already installed.
In a Facebook post, Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of the opposition Kuomintang party, said the move “significantly [restricts] Internet freedom,” and described the ban on Xiaohongshu as “a starting-point for building the Great Wall of the Internet,” by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
Xiaohongshu, Apple and Google did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comments.
In 2022, Taiwan banned Xiaohongshu from government devices, calling it a “united front” for Chinese propaganda.
Earlier this year, Taiwan sent a letter to Xiaohongshu’s parent company, Xingyin Information Technology (Shanghai), seeking “concrete improvement measures,” but the company did not reply.
Xiaohongshu is widely used in China and saw renewed interest in the U.S. earlier this year after a proposed ban on its competitor TikTok. That prompted TikTok users to flock to Xiaohongshu, adding roughly 700,000 new users to the platform, according to Reuters.
— CNBC’s Anniek Bao contributed to this report.