Can TikTok ask ShareChat to remove third-party content?

New Delhi: TikTok’s recent takedown notice to ShareChat to remove more than 100 videos, claiming exclusive rights over them, may raise legal questions as it contradicts their claims during the Madras High Court hearing in April that TikTok is an intermediary and cannot be banned for third-party content.

The government, according to a 27 August report in The Economic Times, plans to ask TikTok how its intermediary status is consistent with its claims that it owns content.

ShareChat, too, has raised an objection on the matter with MEITY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology).