Last year, the Government of India banned some Chinese-consent applications, including the popular short-video sharing apps TikTok and PUBG Mobile. While Pubg Mobile uses such instances, they have been banned in China, and Game for Peace (also known as PeaceKeeper) was later released. TikTok also received a banning order in the US from the Trump administration, but Biden revoked it with helpful guidelines.
TikTok Banned Since June 29th, 2020 by MeitY
Beijing-based firm ByteDance (Parent Company of TikTok) held 30% of users from India, with 167 million users before the ban of TikTok.
In India, the main concern about the app was nudity, which was also raised by the people of India. A case from early 2019: Tamil Nadu Information Technology Ministry lawmakers banned the app for alleging the spread of cultural degradation among young adults and teens. Following the court request, Google and Apple took down TikTok from their respective stores.
In contrast, TikTok recently introduced an algorithm that automatically removes video for naughtiness. Currently, this algorithm is under development (beta testing) in the US and is expected to roll out globally once it is stable. Thanks to this, more than 8,540,088 video takedowns containing nudity will no longer require human review or be reported by the audience.
Recent announcements at the UN Generation Equality Forum in Paris propose to ensure women’s protection on online platforms, including TikTok, Twitter, Google, and Facebook. TikTok requires more such improvements and protections if they want to re-join India’s market. After much backlash, Battlegrounds Mobile India (formerly known as PUBG Mobile) successfully launched in India.
Is TikTok coming back to India?
Today, TikTok filed two trademarks in India: ‘TikTalk’ and ‘TikTock.’ Lately, some reports have suggested similar instances. TikTok has a strong presence among social networking giants. Recently, they crossed 3 billion downloads globally. Which makes the app the first non-Facebook-owned social giant to cross this milestone.
Like PUBG Mobile, TikTok might return to India as TickTock or TikTalk.
Currently, the short-video sharing market in India is dominated by Instagram reels and YouTube shorts, and they have also invested heavily. Users trust these more, which makes it hard for TikTok to be as successful as before. What this could mean and whether TikTok will be able to increase its market share needs to be clarified. On the other hand, TikTok Starts signed an exclusive contract with other short-video sharing apps like Likee and MX TakaTak.
TikTok in Talk with the Government of India
Bytedance assures GOI officials to potentially resume TikTok operations in India, but experts suggest it is unlikely. This might be why they registered with Trademark to rebrand their application and launch. They must also comply with the New IT Rule before the launch of TikTok.
That’s all you need to know; we would like your valuable opinion and feedback if any query is shared with us in the comment section below. Stay tuned for further updates in the future.