Thursday 25 April 2019

Madras HC lifts ban on TikTok, imposes limit on content of videos

Chinese company which owns the app says the ban resulted in a financial loss of around $500,000 daily.
TikTok
The Madras HC has lifted the ban on Chinese short video sharing app TikTok, subject to the company fulfilling some conditions. After hearing the matter for about five hours on Wednesday, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, consisting of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice S S Sundar vacated its interim order banning the app, subject to the condition that pornographic videos, and those on child abuse and women abuse will not be uploaded on it, failing which contempt of court proceedings would be initiated.
The same bench had, on April 3, issued an order directing the Centre to prohibit downloading of the TikTok Mobile App, as it observed that there was the risk inappropriate content such as abusive language and pornography would posted on the app.
ByteDance, backed by investor SoftBank Corp, which owns the app, moved the Apex Court against the Order. On Monday, a Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked the High Court to decide on the petition against the app on April 24, failing which the ban on the app would be automatically vacated. The matter was again heard by the Madurai bench for nearly five hours on Wednesday, after which the order was passed.
While the Order copy was not available immediately, Advocate K Neelamegam, who is representing the petitioner and was present in Court, confirmed that the Court has “modified” the previous Order, subject to meeting the conditions. TikTok has said that the app will shut automatically if the user upload any objectionable videos. The company said it has created a three-layer system, including an AI-based one, and manual deletion in to take care of such cases. It also informed the Court that nearly six million controversial videos had been deleted. The firm also said it would appoint a nodal officer to address any complaints between 13 and 36 hours from their being filed.

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