Indian court lifts ban on TikTok

In a surprising chain of events, an Indian state court has reversed its decision to ban TikTok in India, thereby allowing the ‘short-video’ app to return to Google and Apple’s app store and resume its services.

TikTok, the uber-popular controversial app has a massive following in India. Earlier this month, the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information ordered to remove the app from app stores (Apple and Google), after a high court in Madras concluded the app was encouraging ‘pornography and illicit content’. This cause TikTok massive loss as the Indian consumer base accounts to a total of 27% of all TikTok installs between December 2017 and December 2018 while having 120 million monthly active users in India. Byte Dance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok in a court filing said that the ban was resulting in “$500,000 daily loses”.

TikTok spokesperson applauded the decision after the court lifted the nearly week-long ban on TikTok. The spokesperson said:

“We are glad about this decision and we believe it is also greatly welcomed by our thriving community in India, who use TikTok as a platform to showcase their creativity. We are grateful for the opportunity to continue serving our users better.”

TikTok in recent time has become controversial in Pakistan and India. Furthermore, the app sparked an outcry in India when a 24-year-old user committed suicide after being bullied on the app. Some Indian politicians and parents argue that the app is inappropriate for Indian children owing to its illicit content. Furthermore, the Tamil Nadu court ruled against TikTok citing that the app may expose children to potential sexual predators.

TikTok, on the other hand, argued that a very small and “minuscule” part of its content was inappropriate and that it (TikTok) removed over 6 million videos after reviewing content created by the Indian users that violated its conditions and community guidelines. Interestingly, this isn’t the first time TikTok has been reprimanded, back in February the FTC in USA fined TikTok $5.7 million for violating children’s privacy laws and ordered the app to implement an age gate.

Currently, India and USA are the only two countries that require the users to have an age limit of 13 years for using the app. Other countries where the app is popular include, Russia, Mexico, Middle East, United Kingdom, and Pakistan.