It's much simpler than that! You just have to recognize that this is basically the Streisand effect, or, hell, even just the Boston Tea Party! 1. A government/

It's much simpler than that! You just have to recognize that this is basically the Streisand effect, or, hell, even just the Boston Tea Party! 1. A government/center of power imposes a unilateral decree to deprive many people of something they used to have a right to 2. The affected hear: "shut up about your rights" 3. This act of deprivation itself becomes the uniting common issue for the affected, and then they become a self-organizing body politic 3. The body politic then naturally becomes suspicious of any solution that appears to comply with the government's wishes If you're surprised that people in this country protest when they feel their right to protest has been encroached upon - or if it seems surprising that using Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts would not be interpreted as protest but using Rednote would be (or, and this also seems very likely: if news organizations would ever NOT pick up the story of some number of users flocking to yet another Chinese app WITHOUT making it seem like a big protest) - I don't know what to tell you.