The government has ruled out the possibility of reviving TikTok in India. Union IT, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that there is no plan under consideration to revoke the ban on the Chinese short-video platform. Vaishnaw clarified that the matter has not even been discussed within the government. The minister was responding to speculation that ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, could be preparing for a re-entry.
“There is absolutely no proposal which has come from any quarters,” he said.
When asked whether Chinese investors could again become active in the Indian tech ecosystem, Vaishnaw said the government will follow a transparent approach. “We will see as it happens. Policies will be clearly shared with everybody. We are a very transparent country,” the minister said.
The speculation gained momentum after TikTok’s website became briefly accessible in India last month on some broadband and mobile networks, including Airtel and Vodafone. The short glitch triggered chatter on social media that the app may be coming back. However, officials have now clarified otherwise.
TikTok was first banned in India in June 2020, when the Centre blocked 59 Chinese apps citing national security and data privacy concerns. Apple and Google removed the apps from their stores soon after, and the restriction was made permanent in January 2021. India was then TikTok’s largest user base, with more than 200 million people using the platform.
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