Heena Sharma Blog

India's ban on popular Chinese video app TikTok is resulting in "financial losses" of up to $500,000 a day for its developer, Beijing Bytedance Technology Co, and has put more than 250 jobs at risk, the company said in a court filing seen by Reuters. TikTok allows users to create and share short videos with special effects and is one of the world's most popular apps. It has been downloaded by nearly 300 million users so far in India, out of more than 1 billion downloads globally, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower. Earlier this month, an Indian state court ordered the federal government to prohibit its downloads, saying the app was encouraging pornography. Acting upon instructions from the federal IT ministry, Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google last week removed TikTok from their India app stores. The developments have dealt a blow to the India growth plans of Bytedance, which is backed by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp and by private equity. ...

An Indian ban on downloading TikTok , one of the world's most popular mobile applications, has heightened industry worries that technology companies could now face increased scrutiny and regulatory challenges in one of their most important markets. TikTok, which allows users to create and share videos with special effects, has become a sensation in India, where it has been downloaded by nearly 300 million users so far, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower, out of more than 1 billion installs globally. Its runaway popularity has attracted criticism from some politicians, however, in a largely conservative society that can have a low boiling point for even moderately racy content. In the case of TikTok, 15-second dance clips and memes dominate the platform, although some videos do show youngsters, some scantily clad, lip-syncing and grooving to popular tunes. Local media have also reported several accidental deaths when users attempted to make videos with knives and gu...

It is open season on all short video services as well as social media apps, which, according to the government and the judiciary, are supplying inappropriate content. While those who support freedom of internet on Wednesday criticised banning of TikTok from Google and Apple stores as an infringement of right to choose, sources in the government said the steps were taken only after repeated warnings on weeding out foul content fell on deaf ears. The road ahead is going to be a tough one for TikTok and other similar apps as now the government is directly working with both Apple and Google to ensure they do not get any further downloads. “ The government at the moment may not be able to stop the already existing users from posting on the app but it has ensured that they do not get any further downloads. The decision to ban TikTok was taken only after repeated requests to take down objectionable content did not get the desired results. Videos of young children and other similar...

An Indian court's call for a ban on the popular video app TikTok will hurt free speech rights, China's Bytedance Technology Co has said in a request for the Supreme Court to quash the directive. Bytedance is one of the world's most valuable start-ups and its TikTok app lets users create and share short videos with special effects. It has become popular in rural India, where most of a population of 1.3 billion lives. TikTok, whose video-only interface makes it easier to use than platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, has been downloaded more than 240 million times in India, says app analytics firm Sensor Tower. A ban "amounts to curtailing of the rights of the citizens of India...who have been using the platform everyday to express themselves and create content," the company said in a court filing reviewed by Reuters, asking for the order to be quashed. The company's Monday filing is not public and has not previously been reported. The Supreme Cou...