TikTok says no plans to pursue legal action against the ban

There have been a few reports doing the rounds that TikTok is planning to pursue legal action against the government of India for banning it in the country. The video-sharing platform has spoken up to dispel these rumours and has said that they have no plans of any such action. 

“There have been statements in the press concerning the possibility that TikTok might pursue legal action regarding the directive by the Government of India. We have no plans to pursue such action,” the TikTok spokesperson said.

“We are committed to working with the government to address its concerns. We comply with the laws and regulations of the Government of India. Ensuring the data sovereignty, security and privacy of our users has always been and will continue to be a top priority for us,” the spokesperson added.  

Some online publications had reported earlier today that TikTok may legally challenge the directive that banned 59 Chinese apps in India. TikTok's recent statement is in line with what they have been saying since the ban came into force. 

TikTok's India head Nikhil Gandhi had said on Tuesday that they have been invited to meet with the concerned government stakeholders for an opportunity to respond and submit clarifications. The company also said that they will continue working with the government to solve matters. 

One Monday night, the Indian government circulated a directive that banned these 59 apps in India and the list included popular apps like TikTok, WeChat, Shein, Club Factory, UC Browser etc. 

Following this ban some of these apps, one of them being TikTok, could no longer be seen on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. By the next day TikTok had stopped working for users who already had the app downloaded on their smartphones. 

Google released a statement today saying that they will be blocking all these 59 apps from the Google Play Store. Apple has not said anything about this yet and have not responded to our queries about what their decision is as far as these 59 apps are concerned but all the apps are no longer visible on the App Store either.