E-Paper
TikTok back in India? Govt responds amid buzz over Chinese app's return
Earlier, several users reportedly claimed that they were able to access the ByteDance-owned company's website in India.
Amid reports of users being able to access TikTok's website homepage in India, sources from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology have clarified that the ban on the Chinese app has not been lifted.
Earlier, several users reportedly claimed that they were able to access the ByteDance-owned company's website in India, even though the TikTok app itself continued to remain unavailable on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
“Government of India has not issued any unblocking order for TikTok. Any such statement/news is false and misleading," government sources said.
In June 2020, the central government announced a ban on 59 mobile applications, mostly Chinese, including TikTok, UC Browser and WeChat, citing concerns that these are ‘prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order’.
The move came against the backdrop of India's flaring border tensions with China. Ties between Beijing and New Delhi had hit a low during the 2020 Galwan Valley clashes in eastern Ladakh.
The move came against the backdrop of India's flaring border tensions with China. Ties between Beijing and New Delhi had hit a low during the 2020 Galwan Valley clashes in eastern Ladakh.
At the time, Union home minister Amit Shah had backed the decision to block the apps and signed off on a recommendation by the then Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla before the order was formally issued by the IT ministry as per protocol.
The 59 apps had been reported for “leaking data”, HT had reported at the time.
“All these apps have been reported to have been leaking data. Their malpractices have also been singled out by experts. They have been said to take location data, transfer files to servers in China. Moreover, the beauty apps, such as beauty plus and selfie camera have also been reported for being a threat as they contain pornographic content,” an IT ministry official had said.
TikTok reportedly had nearly 200 million users in India as of January 2020.
Chinese companies had been suspected of building backdoors in their hardware and software, a concern most prominently cited by several countries where officials have been wary of deploying Chinese-made 5G networking equipment.
