A day after HC seeking TikTok ban, government ‘stays put'

A day after the Madras High Court asked the Centre to ban short-video platform TikTok in connection with inappropriate content, Google told The Economic Times that the government has not asked the company to kick out the platform from its app store.

Moreover, a central government official told the publication that the order is very hard to implement and that TikTok must appeal against the judgment.

Despite the judgment seeking a ban, TikTok, owned by Chinese content company ByteDance, remains available on Google app store for download.

In February, the Tamil Nadu government had discussed seeking a ban on the app’s usage in India in the legislative assembly. These discussions mainly centred on privacy issues, addictive nature of the app for young adults and children as well as sharing of obscene or objectionable content on the platform.

The directive from the High Court also prohibits airing of clips sourced from TikTok by media houses as well.

In a statement, TikTok said that it was awaiting a copy of the order from the High Court and will take appropriate steps accordingly. The app has 39% of its 500 million global user base in India.

The next hearing is on 16 April.