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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.