Bytedance, the owner of TikTok, also confirmed in a statement that the Indian government has not allowed access to the platform for short videos to be restored.
India will not be receiving TikTok. The Bytedance-owned short video platform is not coming to the nation anytime soon, despite the claims made by a number of media platforms and content creators that went viral. Soon after India and China’s geopolitical tensions escalated in 2020, TikTok was first banned.
In an official confirmation to media, both the Indian government and ByteDance have clarified that TikTok continues to remain banned in the country five years after the initial ban. Following reports that numerous users could access the TikTok homepage without a VPN, speculations about the resurgence of the original short video platform gave rise to rumors of an “unbanned” TikTok. This coincided with India and China engaging in diplomatic talks to strengthen regional ties.
TikTok is not coming to India
Soon after claims of TikTok’s return to India went viral on social media, sources in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology termed these reports as “false and misleading”.
In June 2020, 59 Chinese-affiliated apps, which were deemed “prejudicial to the integrity, defence, security of the state and public order of India”, were banned under Section 69A of the IT Act. Simply put, many Chinese apps compromise the security and privacy of user data.
In agreement with the government’s position, a TikTok representative confirmed to several media outlets that the company has not taken any action to bring its services back online. “TikTok access has not been restored in India, and we will continue to adhere to the directives of the Indian government,” the spokesperson stated.
Did TikTok “accidentally” become accessible for a brief period of time?
Due to a technical issue, TikTok was accessible for a while. A network-level misconfiguration is thought to have caused the incident, which is similar to another incident that happened in September 2022 when some ISPs unintentionally unblocked some restricted websites while installing a system patch.
The TikTok mobile app is not accessible in India on the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, even though the website is temporarily accessible. Error messages like “Our services are not available in your country or region” were displayed, and users who tried to access the homepage also discovered that other sections of the website were down.
