Madras High Court lifts ban on TikTok

The Madras High Court’s Madurai Bench on Wednesday lifted the ban on video mobile application TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, subject to certain conditions.

Deciding the case filed by advocate Muthukumar, the benchvacated its interim order banning the app, subject to conditions thatpornographic videos will not be uploaded on it, failing which contempt of courtproceedings would begin.

   

“We are glad about this decision and we believe it isalso greatly welcomed by our thriving community in India, who use TikTok as aplatform to showcase their creativity,” TikTok said in a statement.

Early this month the high court, on a petition filed by theadvocate, issued an interim order to the Central government banning downloadingof the app in India and restricted the media from telecasting videos takenusing the app.

The high court had passed an interim order banning the appciting inappropriate and pornographic content.

Tamil Nadu’s Information Technology Minister M. Manikandanhad earlier said that the state would write to the Central government seeking aban on the app in India.

The high court had appointed leading lawyer Arvind Datar asan independent counsel to the court.

On an appeal filed by the Chinese company, the SupremeCourt, on April 22, asked the Madras High Court to decide on TikTok’s plea forinterim relief by April 24, failing which the ban imposed on the mobile appwill stand lifted.

The apex court had refused to pass any order in the matter.

TikTok on wednesday said it was “committed tocontinuously enhancing” its safety features.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to continue serving our users better. While we’re pleased that our efforts to fight against misuse of the platform has been recognised, the work is never ‘done’ on our end,” TikTok added.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

9 + 9 =