SC to hear on April 15 plea challenging Madras HC order asking Centre to ban downloading of TikTok app

A bench comprising Justices N Kirubakaran and S S Sundar of the Madras High Court ordered media not to telecast video clips made with TikTok.

The Madras high court order came on a PIL which alleged that the TikTok app from Chinese company ByteDance encouraged paedophiles and the contents were very disturbing. (AFP/ FILE)

The Madurai bench of Madras High Court on April 3, had directed the Centre to ban mobile application 'TikTok' as it voiced concern over the "pornographic and inappropriate contents" being made available through such apps.

It directed the media not to telecast video clips made with TikTok. The app allows users to create short videos and then share them.

NEW DELHI: After the Madras High Court asked the Centre to ban the Chinese video mobile application TikTok, saying it "encourages pornography" and is spoiling the future of youths and minds of children, Supreme Court said that it will hear the plea challenging Madras HC order on April 15. Earlier, the Madras High court said inappropriate content was being provided by the TikTok app, owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, and the government had a social responsibility to stop it. Hearing a petition filed by an advocate, the Madurai Bench of the High Court on also issued an interim order to the Central government banning downloading of the app in India and restricted the media from telecasting videos taken using the app. Even after the havoc caused by Blue whale online game, which reportedly led to suicides by several people, officials had not learnt that they should be alert to these types of problems, the high court had said. Only when the officials and policymakers were able to act on the problems of society, decision could be taken to prevent these kind of apps, it had said. Voicing concern, the court has said that it was evident from media reports that pornography and inappropriate content were made available through such mobile applications. The court order has come on a PIL which alleged that the TikTok app from Chinese company ByteDance encouraged paedophiles and the contents were very disturbing. The plea said that the app had over 100 million users all over the world and scores of youngsters in India were also using it. Stating that Indonesia and Bangladesh have already banned the app, the PIL said children who used the mobile application were vulnerable and may get exposed to sexual predators.

Published at : 09 Apr 2019 11:52 AM (IST)

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