Madras High Court lifts ban on TikTok app

Chennai, Apr 24: The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday lifted the ban on TikTok video app which was in the news over concerns about access to pornographic content through it.

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Madras High Court to decide on April 24 a plea of TikTok app seeking to vacate of its ban order.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said if the Madras High Court fails to decide on the plea of TikTok app then its ban order will stand vacated.

The apex court had earlier refused to stay the Madras High Court order that directed the Centre to ban the "Tiktok" app over concerns about access to pornographic content through it.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Chinese company ByteDance, had told the top court earlier that there were over billion downloads of the mobile app and ex-parte orders were passed by the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court.

Tik Tok, which was launched in 2019, is a social video app owned by China's Beijing ByteDance Co. It reached the one billion download mark in February. It is a popular app worldwide and was the fourth most downloaded non-game app in 2018.