80% youngsters want TikTok banned in India: Inshorts survey

Eight out of 10 millenials living in India want the controversial Chinese video app TikTok to be banned, reveals a survey by news app Inshorts.

This comes after the Madras High Court last week advised the Central government to ban the app claiming it was encouraging pornography among youngsters.

The court said that inappropriate content was being provided by the TikTok app, owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, and the government had a social responsibility to stop it.

TikTok on the other hand, said it was committed to abiding by local laws and regulations.

"We fully comply with the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011. We are currently awaiting the official order by the Madras High Court and once received, we will review and take appropriate action regarding this matter," the company told IANS.

"In order to better coordinate with the law enforcement agencies, we have appointed a Chief Nodal Officer based out of India," it added.

The survey asked 30,000 participants, majorly from Tier-1 and 2 cities and belonging to the age group of 18-35 years across the country, whether they think TikTok should be banned in India. While 80% said yes, 20% said no, the results showed.

With a global user base of over one billion users, TikTok has over 50 million users in India. In January, 43% of the app's new users were from India, compared to just 9.5 percent in January of 2018, said Sensor Tower founder Oliver Yeh in a recent blog post. In fact, 25% of TikTok's downloads to date have come from India, for an estimated total of 250 million there. The app enables its users to shoot short videos and share it with others.