PIL seeks ban on TikTok in India

Hyderabad: The Telangana high court has issued notices to the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Telangana government and TikTok’s representatives in India, asking them to explain their stand on a public interest litigation seeking a ban on the social networking platform in India.

A bench of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy gave them six weeks to serve counters to a plea filed by advocate Ashok Ram Kumar.

Ashok Kumar in his PIL contended that several short videos on the platform were responsible for propagating false messages about India’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. He added that many of these videos were aimed at diluting the social distancing norms that are integral to fighting the spread of the virus.