An Indian ban on downloading TikTok, one of the world
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) — An Indian ban on downloading TikTok, one of the world’s most popular mobile applications, has heightened industry worries that technology companies could now face increased scrutiny and regulatory challenges in one of their most important markets.
TikTok, which allows users to create and share videos with special effects, has become a sensation in India, where it has been downloaded by nearly 300 million users so far, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower, out of more than 1 billion installs globally.
Its runaway popularity has attracted criticism from some politicians, however, in a largely conservative society that can have a low boiling point for even moderately racey content.
In the case of TikTok, 15-second dance clips and memes dominate the platform, although some videos do show youngsters, some scantily clad, lip-syncing and grooving to popular tunes. Local media have also reported several accidental deaths when users attempted to make videos with knives and guns.
The IT minister of Tamil Nadu state, M. Manikandan, said in February that “young girls and everybody is behaving very badly” on TikTok.
On Wednesday, TikTok vanished from Google and Apple’s app stores in India. The rare takedown of such a popular app came after the Madras High Court said the app encouraged pornography and asked the government to ban it. The federal IT ministry then issued a follow-up directive to Google and Apple.
Industry executives, technology lawyers and free-speech activists interviewed by Reuters on Wednesday said the ban was a major concern.
“It does unnerve me,” said a senior executive working for a social media company in New Delhi.
