The Supreme Court on Thursday refused a plea by Chinese company ByteDance, which owns the short-form TikTok mobile video application, to transfer cases relating to its ban from the Madras High Court to the apex court for speedy disposal.
Appearing before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, for the company, highlighted the larger issue of right to free speech and expression and protection afforded to intermediaries under the Information Technology Act. He said the petitions pending before the Madurai Bench of the High Court should be transferred to the apex court for final disposal.
However, the company withdrew its plea after the Bench said it was not inclined to transfer the case from the High Court to itself.
The apex court had directed the High Court to decide on April 24 the plea of TikTok seeking interim relief of lifting the ban imposed by it. The High Court on that day lifted its ban on the social media app with the condition that the platform should not be used to host obscene videos. On April 3, the High Court directed the Centre to TikTok as it voiced concern over “pornographic and inappropriate content” being made available through such apps.
Though the High Court did not object to TikTok being used in jest, it pointed out how the application could be used for crude humour against innocent parties and lead to violation of the fundamental right to privacy.
The High Court had observed that inappropriate contents were being made available to children. Majority of the teenagers were playing pranks, gaffing around with duet videos and sharing split screen with strangers. This could expose the vulnerable ones to sexual predators.
The court took cognisance of the fact that countries like Indonesia and Bangladesh had banned TikTok and the U.S. enacted the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act to safeguard children.