Complying with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (MeiTY) order to ban TikTok app, both Google and Apple have removed the Chinese social video app from their respective app stores. The move comes a day after the government asked both the technology companies to remove the app.
On April 3, Madras High court has passed an order where it asked the government to prohibit the download of TikTok app. Earlier this week, the court refused to stay this order.
The order, however, will not impact the existing users who have already downloaded the app, it only stops further downloads.
We tried downloading the app on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store, the search, as expected, did not show TikTok in results.
TikTok is one of the most popular apps on both Google Play and App store. The app was globally ranked third amongst the most installed apps during the first quarter of 2019. India accounted for 88.6 million downloads in the March quarter, while the global downloads touched 188 million during the same period.
The popular video making app has drawn immense criticism recently over its misuse. Cases have been reported against the platform being used by pedophiles to target children and teenagers.
The order passed by Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on April 3 not only directs the government to prohibit the app’s download in the country, it also restrains the telecast of videos made using the app by media companies.
