The Government of Tamil Nadu is planning to initiate talks with the centre to ban TikTok, a Chinese media sharing platform owing to the circulation of extreme content, said state IT minister M Manigandan in the state Assembly.
TikTok enables the creation of short videos of short videos providing users with the option to lip-sync and add effects. The application is owned by Beijing based company, Bytedance which is also considered as the world’s most valuable startup with $75billion valuation in total.
TikTok, citing an upcoming ban has said that it is in the process of hiring a chief nodal officer to better align with the country regulations.
“At TikTok, maintaining a safe and positive in-app environment is our priority. We have robust measures to protect users against misuse, including easy reporting mechanisms that enable users and law enforcement to report content that violates our terms of use and community guidelines. We are committed to respecting local laws and regulations, and in order to better coordinate with law enforcement agencies, we are also in the process of hiring a chief nodal officer based out of India,” the company responded.
TikTok is going viral among Indian consumers, particularly the teenagers which have raised concerns among the social groups over nudity, hate speech and other objectionable material. As per latest estimated, TikTok boasts of 24.5 million active users in India.
Last year, the Tamil Nadu police department floated advisories to protect children from the deadly Blue Whale Challenge which claimed several lives across the globe.
