Ban will amount to curtailing rights of citizens of India: TikTok to court
Chinese app TikTok
After the Madras High Court called for a ban on the video app TikTok, China's Bytedance Technology Co said in a request to the Supreme Court to quash the directive.
Bytedance which is one of the world's most valuable start-ups. The company's TikTok app lets users create and share short videos with special effects. It has become popular in rural India.
TikTok, whose video-only interface makes it easier to use than platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, has been downloaded more than 240 million times in India, says app analytics firm Sensor Tower.
A ban "amounts to curtailing of the rights of the citizens of India...who have been using the platform everyday to express themselves and create content," the company said in a court filing, asking for the order to be quashed.
The company's Monday filing is not public and has not previously been reported. The Supreme Court has set next Monday for a hearing.
Bytedance did not respond to a request for comment. India's information technology ministry also did not respond.
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Last week, the Madras High Court had asked the federal government to ban TikTok, saying it encouraged pornography and made child users vulnerable to sexual predators.
TikTok's inappropriate content was a dangerous aspect of the app, it added.
Bytedance said users flagged only a tiny proportion of TikTok videos, showing that a "very minuscule" proportion of its content was considered inappropriate or obscene. TikTok was primarily used to circulate amusing videos, it added.
It also argued that it could not be held liable for content posted by users.
In its filing, the company said TikTok had experienced immense success in India, which fuelled controversy. Bytedance employs more than 250 people in India and plans more investment as it expands the business, it added.