Back in June last year the Indian Government announced a ban on 59 Chinese mobile apps including TikTok and Helo saying that they are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order. Now there are reports that says that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has sent new notice to these apps last week saying that their answers and clarifications following the ban were found to be inadequate, so the temporary block has now been made permanent.
In the other news TikTok today confirmed that it will downsize its India team that will impact all employees in India and is exploring all ways of a possible comeback. This has been confirmed by Tiktok’s global interim head Vanessa Pappas and vice president for global business solutions Blake Chandlee. The executives expressed uncertainty on the company’s comeback to India but expressed hope to do so in times to come.
The company said that it has worked steadfastly to comply with the government of India order issued on June 29, 2020 and continually strives to make its apps comply with local laws and regulations.
In a statement, the company said:
We have done our best since then to address their (Indian government’s) concerns. It is therefore disappointing that in the ensuing seven months, despite our efforts we have not been given a clear direction on how and when our apps could be reinstated. It is deeply regretful that after supporting our over 2,000 employees in India for more than half a year, we have no choice but to scale back the size of our workforce.
We look forward to receiving the opportunity to relaunch TikTok and support the hundreds of millions of users, artists, story-tellers, educators and performers in India.