TN for banning TikTok video app

For the Tamil Nadu government, TikTok, a popular mobile app that allows users to record videos and post them online, is an instrument that could be a potential threat to law and order.

Responding to a suggestion by a legislator from Nagapattinam in the Cauvery Delta region, Information Technology Minister Dr M Manikandan told the Tamil Nadu Assembly that the state government would recommend the Union Government to ban the popular mobile app as it did with regard to the Blue Whale challenge, which led to many ending their lives.

However, Manikandan neither elaborated on the issue nor gave any time-frame for writing to the Centre. The Minister’s response came to a question posed by Tamimum Ansari, who won the 2016 assembly elections by contesting on the ruling AIADMK’s “Two Leaves” symbol.

Ansari said the mobile application that allows users to create, edit and share video in just a few steps should be banned in Tamil Nadu since it is being misused. “The mobile app creates law and order problems and many obscene activities take place on it in the garb of creating and editing videos. It would be better if the app is banned in Tamil Nadu,” Ansari said.

The popular mobile app has been downloaded by over 500 million users on the android platform and is one of the most popular tools among youngsters. Since the app is used to troll politicians, Tamil Nadu BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan said she would be the first person to be happy if the ban is enforced.