India Court Lifts TikTok Ban, But App Says It Will Prohibit Porn

After costing the popular video sharing app at least 2 million users, according to a Business Insider report, a court in India has lifted the ban it imposed on the app TikTok earlier in April. But the makers of the app told the court that they will employ new techniques to prevent adult content from being uploaded to the app. The Madras High Court ordered the Indian government to ban TikTok on the grounds that the app, with its reported one billion users, was “encouraging porn,” as AVN.com reported. The largest segment of TikTok users— an estimated 250 million—are based in India, the world’s second-most populous country. As a result, though the ban lasted only a few weeks, it took a toll on TikTok, according to the Business Insider report. The Chinese app maker ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, reportedly lost $500,000 for each day the app was banned from being downloaded in India, and 2,590 people employed by the company would have likely lost their jobs had the ban continued. But the court not only required the app maker to take new steps to prevent porn videos from appearing on TikTok, but also required that any complaints about banned content must be addressed within 36 hours, or the company would face contempt of court charges, according to a report by The Next Web.  In a statement, the makers of TikTok said that they were committed to “continuously enhancing our safety features as a testament to our ongoing commitment to our users in India.” Though the Madras court issued its order to ban TikTok on April 3, it was only one week ago that the government forced the Apple and Google app stores to delete the app, according to CNN.  As of Thursday, however, the day after the ban was lifted, the app remained unavailable from Google and Apple, according to India TV News.  Photo By Toutiao/Wikimedia Commons Public Domain