Netizens rail against TikTok for ‘objectionable videos’

#BanTikTokInIndia, #tiktokdown, #tiktokexposed were among the hashtags trending on micro-blogging platform Twitter as the Chinese video-sharing app’s rating fell to 2.0 from 4.6 on Google Play Store.

Videos of TikTok users allegedly promoting acid attacks, rape, animal cruelty, hate mongering and violence have emerged on Twitter, drawing flak from netizens. A number of memes criticizing the app have also been shared on social media.

“As per the policy, we do not allow content that risks safety of others, promotes physical harm or glorifies violence against women. The behaviour in question violates our guidelines and we have taken down content, suspended the account, and are working with law enforcement agencies as appropriate” said a TikTok spokesperson.

TikTok combines content moderation technology a moderation team. In India, the moderation team covers 15 major Indian languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati and more.

With over 200 million users, India is the biggest market for the Chinese video-sharing social network. An App Annie report released in April said that TikTok was the most downloaded app in India in the social media category as the country went into lockdown.

Of late, demands for a ban on TikTok have surfaced a couple of times on social media. Many users claimed that they uninstalled the ByteDance-owned app in support of a YouTube content creator. Over the last few days, an Internet war broke out between YouTube influencer CarryMinati (Ajey Nagar) and TikTok creator Amir Siddiqui in India. CarryMinati has a subscriber base of 16.7 million on YouTube while Siddiqui has 3.7 million followers on TikTok. This online battle led to users asking for a ban on TikTok.

On Tuesday, National Commission for Women (NCW) Chief Rekha Sharma said she will be writing to the government of India to ban TikTok as the app is pushing youngsters towards “unproductive life”, besides having “objectionable videos”.