Tiktok / Instagram is banned in China. I know some content gets reposted from Chinese platforms, but a lot of what I’m seeing seems like it’s coming directly from influencers in China. They’re speaking English, referencing TikTok, and clearly aware of the platforms they’re on.
For example, there have been a bunch of recent videos of Chinese manufacturing workers talking about tariffs and designer brands— Plus, there are influencers like this:
- u/douuod57 on Instagram — Verified with over 1 million followers
- This reel —
Are these influencers using VPNs? Do some people or businesses have special access? Did the Chinese government allow some influencers to post in the west???
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VPNs are not hard to set up.
TikTok is Chinese. How’s it banned in China?
China bans millions of u.s companies but when the u.s wants to ban the china owned tik tock, the world is ending
The contents you see may not actually be from the people in the videos. Plagiarism/reposts is just very common on internet
Even if they are original, they influencers may not actually be in China
In China, people can use VPN to access foreign websites. It is illegal in principle, but it’s such a minor offense that the police usually don’t care, so a lot of Chinese do use VPN to access foreign websites. But this the case if the influencer is not very popular
If an influencer is very popular, they would take into account the legality of their whole business. They usually do like this: their account is not solely run by the person you see in the video, but a studio or a company. They have a partnership with a foreign business. They shoot and edit the video in China and then export (send) it to the foreign business, the foreign business would then post it on foreign websites.