New Delhi:
Its a good news for all TikTok fans, Madurai bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday lifted ban on TikTok video app. On Monday, the Supreme Court of India also lifted the ban on the app and ordered the Madras High Court to hear company plea on Wednesday.
The top court requested the High Court to decide the application seeking vacation of interim ex-parte stay on the Tik Tok app today.
Earlier, Google had blocked TikTok from the playstore in India. This came after Madras High Court's directive to prohibit its downloads.
The Centre had earlier sent a letter to Apple and Google to abide by the high court's order, as per the IT ministry official. However, the app was still available on Apple's platforms late on Tuesday but was no longer available on Google's Play store in India. Google had said in a statement it does not comment on individual apps but adheres to local laws, news agency Reuters reported. The High Court had on April 3 asked the centre to ban TikTok, saying it encouraged pornography and made child users vulnerable to sexual predators.
The Madras High Court had passed an order to prohibit the download and use of TikTok. The Madurai bench of the High Court passed the order after expressing concern that the app hosts inappropriate content, including pornography, which is available for access to children. The bench had also expressed its concern that minors are also exposed to strangers online through TikTok.
The petition was filed by a Madurai-based senior lawyer-cum-social activist Muthu Kumar. Citing pornography, cultural degradation, child abuse, suicides, he had sought a direction to ban TikTok.
Tik Tok, which was launched in 2019, is a social video app owned by China's Beijing ByteDance Co. It reached the one billion download mark in February. It is a popular app worldwide and was the fourth most downloaded non-game app in 2018.
