TikTok, Shein, Xiaomi and three other Chinese companies were named in a privacy complaint filed on Thursday by Austrian advocacy group Noyb, which alleged the firms were unlawfully sending European Union user data to China.

Austrian privacy advocate NOYB has launched its first GDPR complaints against Chinese businesses. The organization has filed complaints against TikTok, Xiaomi, Shein, AliExpress, Temu and WeChat, alleging that these companies unlawfully shared information about European users with parties in China.

Chinese technology firms, including TikTok, face mounting pressure in Europe as compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes centre stage. The latest privacy complaints filed by advocacy group Noyb (None Of Your Business) could potentially result in fines amounting to 4% of the global revenue for each company.

The digital exodus has created a new cultural bridge between Chinese and American users, even as cybersecurity experts warn of heightened data privacy risks.

Chinese social media app RedNote, known in China as Xiaohongshu, gained nearly 3 million U.S. users in one day earlier this week as a flood of self-proclaimed "TikTok Refugees" joined, according to new data from analytics firm Similarweb.

In their mass migration to the Chinese app RedNote, social media users make a gleeful mockery of the American government.