Xiaohongshu struggles to hire English-speaking content moderators

Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu – better known internationally as RedNote – is struggling to improve its ability to moderate English-language content after hundreds of thousands of US users suddenly joined the platform looking forward to TikTok potentially is prohibited in the United States on Sunday.

WIRED identified a handful of job postings posted on recruitment platforms by tech outsourcing companies in China this week seeking content moderators who can help manage the unexpected influx of English videos and posts uploaded to Xiaohongshu. Several new recruitment notices have also been posted, urgently seeking content moderators who can work in Chinese, the platform’s default language.

VXI Global Solutions, an American customer service company that has been operating in China since the early 2000s, posts job vacancies on recruitment websites Jillian Zhaopin and CHIEF Zhipinspecifying that applicants will “moderate the videos from foreign friends’ Xiaohongshu accounts.” The recruiter even labeled one of the ads “Urgent Recruitment of Xiaohongshu Overnight – TikTok Refugee Moderation, Short-Term (Contracts) Accepted.”

Jinhui Rongzhi TechnologyIT services outsourcing company, and transan AI-based translation service provider, also posted similar recruitment notices this week seeking English-speaking content moderators to work for Xiaohongshu. WIRED contacted all three companies to confirm the validity of the lists. None of them responded in time for publication. Xiaohongshu also did not immediately return a request for comment.

Salary for jobs ranges from 4,500 RMB to 8,000 RMB per month (about $600 to $1,100). Applicants are required to demonstrate their English language skills and prove that they have successfully passed an exam. One ad noted that the position must be filled within three days and applicants should not apply if they cannot start immediately.

The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s top internet watchdog, is already reportedly concerned about content shared by foreigners on Xiaohongshu. The CAC warned the platform earlier this week to “ensure that China-based users cannot 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 the government deems politically sensitive. Platforms like Xiaohongshu rely on large teams of contractors managed by outsourcing companies to perform both routine enforcement and emergency response.

“RedNote — like all platforms owned by Chinese companies — is subject to the Chinese Communist Party’s repressive laws,” Ali Funk, research director for technology and democracy at the human rights nonprofit Freedom House, wrote in an email to WIRED. “Independent researchers have documented how keywords deemed sensitive to the ruling party, such as discussion of labor strikes or criticism of Xi Jinping, can be deleted from the platform.”

But the influx of US TikTok users – up to 700,000 in just two days, according to Reuters— could reduce Xiaohongshu’s ability to moderate content, said Eric Liu, an editor at China Digital Times, a California-based publication documenting censorship in China, who has also worked as a content moderator for the Chinese social media platform Weibo.