Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: An Indian High Court has reversed it's earlier decision and lifted a nationwide ban on the popular short-form video app, TikTok.
According to media reports, the ban has been lifted after almost a week when the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in India had directed the removal of the app from the Apple and Google app stores.
The directive came after the Madras High Court in Tamil Nadu ordered the removal of the app as it believed that it was spreading illicit content, and encouraging cultural degeneration.
However, on Wednesday, April 24, hearing a plea from Bytedance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, the state court reversed its decision pushing for the ban.
A senior government official from the MeitY told Reuters that once it received the court’s order, the ministry would ask Apple and Google to allow the TikTok app to return on their platforms.
According to the news agency, TikTok allows users to create and share short videos with special effects and is one of the world’s most popular apps. It has been downloaded by nearly 300 million users so far in India, out of more than 1 billion downloads globally, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower.
TikTok features memes and music videos, with some clips showing youngsters, some scantily clad, lip-syncing and dancing to popular tunes. Some Indian politicians and parents say its content is inappropriate, Reuters reported.
