Time Ticking For ‘Tik Tok’ In Tamil Nadu: State Government Calls For Ban On Popular Social Media App

Following a demand raised by an MLA in the state assembly, Tamil Nadu Information Technology Minister M Manikandan has said that the state government will write to the centre to ban the lip-syncing and music video app Tik Tok, claims report.

The matter stems from a discussion which took place in the state legislature on the app, during which Nagapattinam MLA Thamimun Ansari asked the government to place a ban on it for ostensibly causing law and order problems. He alleged that obscene activities were being carried out on the app.

In response to this, Manikandan assured the assembly that Tamil Nadu will recommend a ban on the app to the central government, in a similar fashion as it had taken action during the Blue Whale challenge.

Ansari claimed that many supporters of the ban had called him in appreciation of his demand. “Many school and college students are using it. They and their families are getting affected by it, it's ripping them apart,” he stated.

Tik Tok is an app created by Chinese company ByteDance. It is immensely popular across Asia with over 500 million users. Most Indian users use the app to recreate scenes from popular movies or media. However, users in Tamil Nadu also take to the app to mock politicians from across the spectrum in Tamil Nadu, perhaps explaining the backlash of state lawmakers against it.