These Chinese apps have grown in popularity in the United States A ban on TikTok could trap

Lemon8, a photo sharing app from Bytedance, and RedNote, a content sharing platform based in Shanghai, have seen a rise in popularity in the United States as “TikTok refugees” migrate to alternative platforms before a potential ban.

Now a law that could see TikTok shut down in the United States threatens to cross these Chinese social media apps, and others are gaining traction as TikTok-alternatives, legal experts say.

From Wednesday, RedNote – known as Xiaohongshu in China — was the number one free app on the US iOS store, with Lemon8 taking second place.

The Supreme Court of the United States is expected to decide on the constitutionality of the Protecting Americans from the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Actor PAFACA, which would lead to the TikTok app being banned in the United States if its Beijing owner, ByteDance, has not surrendered it by January 19.

While the legislation explicitly names TikTok and ByteDance, experts say its scope is broad and could open the door for Washington to target additional Chinese apps.

“Chinese social media apps, including Lemon8 and RedNote, could also be banned under this law,” Tobin Marcus, head of US politics and policy at New York-based research firm Wolfe Research. , he told CNBC.

If the ban on TikTok is confirmed, it will be unlikely that the law will allow potential substitutions originating from China without some form of concession, experts told CNBC.

PAFACA automatically applies to Lemon8 as a subsidiary of ByteDance, while RedNote could fall under the law if its average monthly user base in the US continues to grow, Marcus said.

The legislation prohibits distributing, maintaining or providing Internet hosting services to any “foreign adversary controlled application”.

These applications include those connected to ByteDance or TikTok or a social media company that is controlled by a “foreign adversary” and has been determined to present a significant threat to national security.

The wording of the legislation is “quite expansive” and would give incoming President Donald Trump room to decide which entities constitute a significant threat to national security, said Carl Tobias, Williams Chair in Law at the University of Richmond.

Xiaomeng Lu, Director of Geo-technology at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, told CNBC that the law will likely prevail, even if its implementation and enforcement are delayed. Regardless, she expects Chinese applications in the United States to continue to be the subject of increased regulatory action going forward.

“The TikTok case has set a new precedent for Chinese apps to be targeted and potentially shut down,” Lu said.

He added that other Chinese apps may be affected increased scrutiny this year includes popular Chinese e-commerce platform Temu and Shein. US officials have accused the app posing data risksallegations similar to those imposed against TikTok.

The fate of TikTok rests with the Supreme Court after the platform and its parent company archived a lawsuit against the US government, claiming that invoking PAFACA violated constitutional protections of free speech.

TikTok’s argument is that the law is unconstitutional as applied to them specifically, not that it’s unconstitutional per se, said Cornell Law professor Gautam Hans. “So regardless of whether TikTok wins or loses, the law could also apply to other companies,” he said.

The defined scope of the law is broad enough that it could be applied to a variety of Chinese apps considered a threat to national security, beyond traditional social media apps in the TikTok model, Hans said.

Trump, meanwhile, has urged the United States Supreme Court to delay the implementation of PAFACA so that they can pursue a “political resolution” after it is in place. Democratic lawmakers also urged Congress and President Joe Biden extend the January 19 deadline.