account blocked due to impersonation, asking for passport to verify my identity.

Chinese social media will nearly always as for real name verification at some point. It's a way to crack down on fraud (And hold people accountable for what they say online).

You can either accept it or not. But if not forget about using wechat, qq, rednote, weibo, douyin etc.

They asked me to verify my identity two weeks ago. Instantly deleted the app. Not doing that. 

It not like you cant still use the app. I was asked for my ID a couple months ago and still use it. Just cant post or make comments on that account. I got myself a free sim and opened a new account. Tbh think I got flagged for mentioning aliexpress xD

It's a standard procedure. Proceed if the app is worth it to you, otherwise don't.

I'm not sure it's a good idea to link every social media to your ID, but your passport doesn't contain any secret information. Knowing someone's passport number without the physical document doesn't help anyone seeking to impersonate you.

They also asked me for my passport because of impersonation. I couldn't post or do anything anymore, my name was changed and so was my profile pic.

So I decided to see what would happen if I tried to verify it, in case there was another option. There wasn't and I just decided to go ahead with the passport. They asked me to use my phone's nfc to scan the chip in my passport (this was actually the moment I found out my passport had a scannable chip with all my info on it). But it wouldn't scan because it wasn't compatible with samsung phones, apparently you need an iphone to do it.

So I just took a screenshot of the error message, and I reported it with a message saying that I am trying to verify my identity but it's not working, I am not chinese, and this is my phone number. I sent the message in chinese, because I had heard it would receive a reply faster.

The next day I got a message saying, thanks for your feedback! Dear xiaohongshu user your account is normal and you can continue to create content using our creator tools...etc. Everything was back to normal including my name, my pfp, my followers, and my posts. So if you don't want to share your passport information maybe this will give you hope lol.

Send in the passport. It’s essentially risk free

The only way most any app that is catered to a particular country can verify foreigners is through either an official identification from the home country, or a passport.

Chinese apps require real-name verification due to Chinese law.

It’s common for Chinese apps so if you want to use it, this should be assumed.

However, to me, the quality of the content and value of the platform isn’t worth the risk. I’m not a heavy user at all and could easily delete it without losing anything useful.

i would quit, not because i am afraid of a chinese corp having the data (when they pose less threat to me than a western one) but that level of submission is not worth stooping to for what it is, and doing it is a universal signal that you are an easy mark for everything else.