Supreme Court refuses to stay ban on TikTok app use

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the order passed by the Madurai bench of the Madras High court over the ban of TikTok, a popular social media platform.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Bytedance (India) Technology Pvt. Ltd, owner of Tik Tok, argued for a stay against the ban, contending that it was causing the company irreparable damage.

The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court had issued an interim order without providing an opportunity to TikTok to defend itself. The bench asked the government to ban the downloading of the app and sought an answer from it regarding enacting a statute to protect children against cybercrime, similar to the one enacted in the US, namely the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.