The Madras High court has asked the centre to ban the Chinese app Tik Tok. The petition has been submitted by a lawyer-cum-social activist, Muthu kumar. The Madurai bench has heard the petition against the app on the grounds that it results in pornography being promoted on the app. The petitioner has also mentioned that it results in cultural degradation among the youngsters.
The objection might be raised against the petition that it restricts the freedom of expression, but the court has important concerns to put forward. The court said that the app proposed a “dangerous aspect” and hence it would go along with the petition. The court has provided the centre with the deadline of 16th April to act on laws protecting children’s privacy, like the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act in US.
The court has showed concern on the app as it instigates suicidal instincts. It also leads to child abuse by the sexual predators and paedophiles. AIADMK legislator Thamimun Ansari had also moved for the banning in Tamil Nadu Assembly citing the similar reasons of cultural degradation. The court has put pressure on the fact that the app contains inappropriate content which affect the young minds. It exploits the youngsters as they come in contact with unknown people and hence fall in trap of the wrong doers.
Articles and news regarding the app have reported of users posting inappropriate bios that included sexual contents which posed great threat to the West countries. The Peterson Institute for International Economics has investigated into the app that revealed national security problems faced by the West.
The Tik Tok was launched in 2016 by the Beijing based ByteDance.Co and it was 4th most non-game downloaded app and marked its one billion download in 2019. It is an app that allows its users to record 3-15 seconds videos and share it. This spread like a viral fever among the teens all over the world. It has about 54 miliion monthly users in India.
It is not just India but even the western countries; doubt the credibility of the apps that are made by the Chinese industries. Including Tik Tok, Chinese apps like the UC Browser , WeChat and 360 Security have come under the scrutiny. The Indian government has reported around 42 such apps as dangerous. These apps have also been declared as Spywares, as they ask for unnecessary data and send it to the Chinese servers. A study commissioned by the Economic Times has seen that 69% of the data from these apps were transferred to US and also to 7 outside agencies.
With India still lacking firm laws and policies supporting data protection it becomes imperative to keep vigilance on apps like Tik Tok. It is important to protect the users against data breach.