TikTok Ban: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday lifted its earlier ban on the download and usage of the much-controversial video sharing mobile app TikTok. The hearing in the case began earlier in the day after Supreme Court directed the High Court to take a final call on providing interim relief to TikTok. The Madras HC has lifted its earlier ban on the Chinese short-video app with the condition that the content hosted using it should be free from obscene videos of children and women.  It also warned the company that if any controversial video violating its conditions is found posted using the app, it would be considered as contempt of court.  Welcoming Wednesday's Madras HC decision, TikTok said in a statement, "We are glad about this decision and we believe it is also greatly welcomed by our thriving community in India, who use TikTok as a platform to showcase their creativity."

As per HC’s order last week, both Apple and Google blocked the download of the video-sharing app on their marketplaces as it faced the litigations of spreading rampant pornographic content in the country. The top court, in its April 23 statement, said that if the Madras High Court fails to decide on the interim relief issue, its order would on banning the video-sharing app would stand vacated.

According to a report by Bar and Bench website, the Bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and SS Sundar removed the ban today after hearing submissions from TikTok, Amicus Curiae and Senior Advocate Arvind Datar. The video-sharing app would soon be available for download on the Apple Store and Google Play Store.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna on Monday said that Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok app, can raise its grievances before the High Court on April 24, when the matter is listed. The bench said that the high court has to decide the plea for interim relief of vacating the ban order on April 24 and if it does not decide the plea, then the ban order would stand vacated.

At the outset, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for ByteDance said that they were losing over Rs 4.5 crore a day and safety features of over two million subscribers are at risk. The high court had on April 3 directed the media not to telecast video clips made with TikTok. The app allows users to create short videos and then share them.

It had asked the government if it would enact a statute on the line of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act in the US.  The high court's interim order came on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) which alleged the app encouraged paedophiles and the content 'degraded culture and encouraged pornography'.