Google blocks TikTok in India after court order
Google has complied with an Indian court order to block access to the popular app TikTok over government concerns with illicit content, according to a person familiar with the decision. The move could handicap the app's owner, China's Bytedance Ltd., the world's most highly valued startup, in one of its most promising markets.
A court had earlier asked the federal government to ban TikTok, citing concerns the video-sharing mobile app exposed children to troubling content, including pornography. Bytedance fought the proposal, but was overruled by Supreme Court. Regulators then asked Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Apple Inc. to remove TikTok from their app stores.
A spokeswoman from Google declined to comment. A representative from Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The court ruling restricts future downloads of the app in India, not existing downloads, said the person familiar with the decision, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.
A Bytedance spokeswoman declined to comment on the app store decisions, but provided a statement from TikTok India: "We have faith in the Indian judicial system," the company said. "And we are optimistic about an outcome that would be well received by over 120 million monthly active users in India."
India is one of several nations across Asia adopting more draconian oversight of internet companies, similar to the way China regulates the web.
Bytedance, which creates social and news-reading apps, has most of its users and sales in China. But TikTok has exploded in popularity elsewhere, giving Bytedance more global reach than any other Chinese tech company. Investors have valued the closely held company at $75 billion. The startup has made a considerable push in India, where a vast majority of consumers use phones running Google's Android software.
Reuters reported earlier on TikTok's removal from Google's app store in India.
courtesy: ndtv.com
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Will of people supreme, says Mahua Moitra after BJP's landslide victory in Bengal
Kolkata (PTI): A day after the Trinamool Congress faced a drubbing by the BJP in the West Bengal assembly elections, TMC MP Mohua Moitra on Tuesday said her party respects the mandate as the will of the people is supreme.
She also said that the party will continue the fight for a “secular country”.
In a post on X, Moitra said, “The will of the people is supreme. If Bengal wanted BJP, then Bengal has got BJP. We respect that.”
The BJP on Monday scripted history by winning 206 seats to secure more than a two-thirds majority in the West Bengal assembly polls, ending the TMC’s 15-year rule.
"We fought the good fight against unimaginable odds on an uneven pitch and for that I am proud of my leader & my party," Moitra said.
She said the TMC will continue to stand and fight for a secular country where the constitution, and "not brute majoritarianism, is the last word”.
