On the 22nd of April, the Supreme Court (SC) directed the Madras High Court to take a decision regarding the ban on the TikTok app. If the Madras High Court does not take a final call on the interim ban by the 24th of April, the SC will lift the ban.
Reacting to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by an advocate seeking a ban on the music making app, the Madras High Court, on the 3rd of April, directed the Government to issue a ban on the app. While banning the app, the Court said the app was promoting pornographic content and was not appropriate for children.
Post the ban, the founder of the app, Bytedance, approached the Supreme Court, saying the order was passed without hearing their side of the case. Bytedance further said, TikTok is an intermediary app and according to the rules laid down by Section 2(w) of the Information Technology Act, the app cannot be held liable for the content posted on its site by third parties.
While filing its appeal with the SC, Bytedance said, their app is mainly meant for posting fun and amusing videos, with no threat to life, liberty and security of an individual. The petition also stated, only 0.0006% of the users actually flagged the content on the app and the majority of the users used it for entertainment and expression.
The interim ban imposed by the Madras High Court only prevents the app from being downloaded from the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store. If you still have the app on your phone, you can use it and the features available on the app, without any legal repercussions.
The Madras High Court now has no option but to pass judgement by the 24th of April or the interim ban will be lifted.
Stay tuned for more updates.
