Centre and five states governments contemplate to ban TikTok and Helo
New Delhi, July.19(HS): The short-video online platform TikTok and Helo owned by Chinese tech company Bytedance have raised concerns over spread of objectionable content through these apps.
The complaint regarding this has been filed by Swadeshi Jagaran Manch associated with RSS with centre government. Five state governments viz., Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Telangana, Maharashtra and West Bengal are contemplating to ban these apps or curtail the usage of the same. The governments of Punjab and Karnataka may also join them soon in this matter.
These states have been informed that these apps are being increasingly used for spreading child pornography and hate speeches.
This issue has been brought to the notice of the company and in response, the company said that it is monitoring the app to prevent such incidents and it is cooperating with the authorities. It has also removed some videos, but still there are various videos circulating with such content.
The centre has also issued notices to these apps’ providers with warning to ban them in case of no suitable response.However, the mentioned state governments are of the view that banning such apps is better option in absence of solid legal framework.
One senior IT Ministry official also holds the same opinion as IT cells of different state governments come across various such videos on daily basis.
It is noteworthy that earlier, TikTok and Helo planned to invest 1 billion dollar over span of coming three years for developing technology infrastructure and going local in India as mentioned in their joint statement.
