&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "TikTok back in India? This is what Indian government said about banned Chinese-owned video sharing platform")
The Indian government officials said that India has not lifted the ban on TikTok, after media reports claimed that the popular Chinese social media platform appeared to be back for some users. “Government of India has not issued any unblocking order for TikTok. Any such statement/news is false and misleading,” official sources said on Friday (Aug 22).
Earlier in the day, media reports citing some users said that they were able to access the TikTok website for the first time in five years. Although the website was accessible to some users, the application was still not available to users in India, said the reports.
Clarifying the reports, officials said that TikTok's content is still not available in India.
They said that while the landing page on the TikTok website earlier used to show that the service was not available in India, it was showing their "About Us" page. This does not mean its content is available in India, they added.
TikTok, a massively popular video-sharing platform owned by the Chinese firm Bytedance, was banned in India in 2020 under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Not just TikTok, they also banned 58 other Chinese applications, citing concerns over data privacy and national security.
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TikTok Photograph: (Screengrab)
When checked, TikTok's official website is available on both laptops and mobiles. However, some people are still not able to access it. This reflects that the app might be available to limited devices or is being tested.
However, the application is still not available on the App Store of Apple and the Play Store of Google.
Why was TikTok banned in India?
In the middle of India-China border tensions, New Delhi banned TikTok in India in June 2020. The government cited national security concerns and data privacy violations as the reasons. The main concern was that the app might be allowing the Chinese government to access Indian user data for surveillance of Indians or for spying on them.
There was fear that TikTok was stealing Indian users' data and transmitting it to the Chinese government. The main reason behind this concern was that TikTok servers were located in China.
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To address the issue, the Ministry of Information Technology invoked its power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act, read with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009, and decided to block 59 apps.
