Following the flak against the online mobile game PUBG, now a popular media app called TikTok in under the scanner for creating ‘law and order problem’ as alleged by Nagapattinam MLA Thamimun Ansari. Ansari has requested the Tamil Nadu government to ban the app as according to him many obscene activities are taking place on it. “I raised an issue forwarded to me by community welfare workers that the mobile application was acting as a platform for heated debates inimical to law and order, and sharing of sexually-explicit material. The minister supported my charge and promised to take steps to ban the application in Tamil Nadu,” said Ansari.
Responding to Ansari’s request made in the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly, IT Minister of Tamil Nadu N Manikandan told the legislative assembly that the State government will approach the Central government seeking a ban on the Chinese app just like how it got the Blue Whale Challenge and the Momo Challenge banned last year.
The app, created by a Chinese Internet technology company Bytedance, allows the creation of short videos which can be lip-synced with any of the existing soundtracks. Recently the app has faced attack after several incidents of death, morphed pictures of girls and even flesh trade were reported.
Meanwhile, Tik Tok has issued a statement claiming that safety and the positive in-app environment was their priority. “We have robust measures to protect users against misuse, including easy reporting mechanisms that enable users and law enforcement to report content that violates our terms of use and community guidelines”, the statement read. The company is in the process of hiring a nodal officer in India.
