The Madras High Court’s Madurai bench earlier this week had lifted the ban on TikTok, which is a popular video creation and sharing app. However, despite the favourable verdict, the app is still not available for download on Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store. On Wednesday, the bench of justices N Kirubakaran and S S Sundar, which heard the matter as per the orders of the Supreme Court, lifted the ban on the condition,that the platform should not be used to host obscene videos. The bench had warned that if any video which violated its condition was found uploaded on the platform, it would be considered a contempt of court. Earlier, the Madras High Court had ordered the central government to prohibit downloads of TikTok, saying the app was encouraging pornography and putting children at risk. The court also asked the government to answer whether it will enact a statute like the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of the US to prevent the children from becoming cyber/online victims. Following this decision, TikTok approached the Supreme Court (SC) asking for the order to be set aside. In its petition ByteDance, the company which owns TikTok, claimed that the ban would hurt free speech rights in the country. It also argued that its platform was only an intermediary and can't be held liable for actions of third-party users on the platform. Also read: No obscene videos: Madras HC lifts ban on TikTok with condition On April 22, a Supreme Court bench consisting of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna ordered that the high court will hear and decide the prayer for vacation of the interim stay. In the meantime, the app was taken down from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. It should be kept in mind that while the app was removed from the stores for downloads, those who had already installed the TikTok app on their phone could continue using it. TikTok had said it had faith in the judiciary and the company was confident of a positive response. Sumedhas Rajgopal, Strategy and Entertainment Lead of TikTok India had told indianexpress.com that the company was open to addressing concerns. “So we have a safety center and are empowering even a creator with a lot of tools to safeguard himself,” he had said. On protecting children on the platform, Rajgopal said the machine learning is able to identify a young creator and maybe not allow them to engage with a stranger. He said the TikTok legal team is engaging actively with the government to understand the policies. “It’s an ongoing process. So we are constantly updating the systems, putting more checks in place.”
