TikTok app banned in India
The Chinese video app TikTok has been banned in India and is no longer available both on Google and Apple app stores after an order by a state court which has put a ban on its downloads. It is seen as a big setback for the developer Bytedance Technology’s attempts to get more users in the core market. Tik Tok had allowed its users to both create and share short videos. Users could add some special effects into the same. The app has become highly popular in India but many politicians have alleged that the app also has access to inappropriate content.
A law court in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu has asked the government of India to put a ban on TikTok based on the pretext that it has encouraged pornographic content and has also issued a warning that all kinds of sexual predators on the internet can easily target the child users. A letter carrying a request to follow the orders of the court was sent to both Facebook and Apple. Taking note of the same, Google had blocked the access to Tik Tok on its Play Store app in India in order to comply with the directive of the court. The app has been absent even on Apple’s app store. Google said that it will not comment on individual apps but follows all the local laws of the land. There was no response from Apple on the issue.
The spokesman for TikTok in India also did not comment on the issue and just said that the matter is still in the court and that the company has complete faith in the Indian Judicial System and was very optimistic about the outcome that will be nicely received by the Indians which form millions of its users.
Tik Tok has been downloaded by over 240 million times in India as per the analytics of the app given by firm Sensor Tower. It was found that over 30 million users had installed the app in January of this year which was around 12 times more than the downloads which had taken place in January 2018. The app platform is usually dominated by jokes, clips and footage which is related to the Indian movie industry. There are also various memes and videos in which many youngsters who are scantily-dressed, lip-sync and dance.
