Govt to Act Against Tik-Tok Under IT Act After Complaints Pour in on Derogatory Content

The government is contemplating action against Chinese video sharing app Tik-Tok after receiving a slew of complaints about content derogatory to the Indian culture, top sources told CNN-News18.

The sources added that action is likely to be taken under sections 79 and 69A of the IT Act.

Tik Tok is already the subject of litigation in India with the Supreme Court last week refusing to hear a plea for the transfer of cases relating to a ban imposed by the Madras High Court.

The Madras High Court had on April 24 lifted its ban on the social media app with the condition that the platform should not be used to host obscene videos. The high court had on April 3 directed the Centre to ban mobile application TikTok as it had voiced concern over "pornographic and inappropriate content" being made available through such apps.

It had passed an interim order on a public interest litigation which sought a ban on the app on the ground that it allegedly carried contents that "degraded culture and encouraged pornography".

Hearing a plea by Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok, challenging the ban, the Supreme Court had refused to stay the high court order but asked it to raise its grievances before the high court

The company had earlier told the top court that there were over billion downloads of the mobile app and ex-parte orders were passed by the high court.

The government had also asked tech giants Google and Apple to comply with the Madras High Court's order. Sources said instructions in this regard were sent to the two American companies after the Supreme Court refused to stay the ban.