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Draft:Restrictions on TikTok in India

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India has banned TikTok twice: first in April 2019 and again in June 2020. The Government of India cited concerns over children's well-being and the protection of the country's "sovereignty and integrity" as reasons for the bans.

Restrictions

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2019 ban

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This section is an excerpt from Censorship of TikTok § 2019 ban.[edit]

On 3 April 2019, the Madras High Court, while hearing a PIL, asked the government of India to ban the app, citing that it "encourages pornography" and shows "inappropriate content". The court also noted that minors using the app were at risk of being targeted by sexual predators. The court further asked broadcast media not to telecast any of those videos from the app. The spokesperson for TikTok stated that they were abiding by local laws and were awaiting a copy of the court order before they take action.[1] On 17 April, both Google and Apple blocked TikTok from Google Play and the App Store for users in India.[2] As the court refused to reconsider the ban, the company stated that they had removed over 6 million videos that violated their content policy and guidelines.[3]

On 25 April 2019, the ban was lifted after the Madras High Court reversed its order, following a plea from TikTok developer ByteDance Technology.[4][5] "We are committed to continuously enhancing our safety features as a testament to our ongoing commitment to our users in India," said TikTok in an official media statement.[6] India's TikTok ban might have cost the app 15 million new users.

2020 ban

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This section is an excerpt from Censorship of TikTok § 2020 ban.[edit]

TikTok, along with 58 other Chinese-created apps,[7] was banned completely in India by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on 29 June 2020, with a statement saying they were "prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state, and public order".[8] The ban was in response to a military clash between Indian and Chinese troops in disputed territory along their shared border between Ladakh and Western China.[9][10] After an earlier skirmish in 2017 between the militaries of the two most populous countries in the world, the Indian military demanded that its troops delete dozens of Chinese applications from their devices over national security concerns. Applications like Weibo, UC Browser, and Shareit are among the apps that were deleted at that time and have now been completely banned.[7]

The Indian government said the decision to ban the apps was "to protect the data and privacy of its 1.3 billion citizens" and to put a stop to technology that was "stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data in unauthorized servers outside India".[10][11]

Apar Gupta, executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation, said the censorship was absent from well-defined national security criteria and has "impacted more Indians than any before". A venture capital investor said it was a populist "feel-good" step, referring to the ban, and that the world has the right to do what China has long done in its own country.[11]

References

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  1. ^ "'It Encourages Pornography': Madras High Court Asks Government to Ban Video App TikTok". News18. 4 April 2019. Archived from the original on 4 April 2019. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
  2. ^ "Apple, Google Block TikTok in India After Court Order". NDTV. 17 April 2019. Archived from the original on 17 April 2019. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
  3. ^ Chandrashekhar, Anandi (17 April 2019). "TikTok no longer available on Google and Apple stores". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 6 June 2019. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  4. ^ "TikTok ban lifted in India but it has lost at least 2 million users". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 16 August 2019. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  5. ^ "TikTok Ban in India Lifted by Madras High Court". beebom.com. Archived from the original on 5 October 2019. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  6. ^ Mukherjee, Amritanshu (25 April 2019). "TikTok no longer banned in India says Court, but porn videos not allowed: Everything you must know". India Today. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  7. ^ a b Abi-Habib, Maria (29 June 2020). "India Bans Nearly 60 Chinese Apps, Including TikTok and WeChat". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  8. ^ "India bans TikTok and dozens more Chinese apps". BBC News. 29 June 2020. Archived from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  9. ^ Doval, Pankaj (30 June 2020). "TikTok, UC Browser among 59 Chinese apps blocked as threat to sovereignty". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020.
  10. ^ a b Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (29 June 2020). "India bans TikTok after Himalayan border clash with Chinese troops". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 June 2020.
  11. ^ a b Zhong, Raymond; Schultz, Kai (30 June 2020). "With India's TikTok Ban, the World's Digital Walls Grow Higher". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 17 September 2020. Retrieved 16 September 2020.

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