For quite some time now, short musical videos of people doing all kinds of things have been all the rage on social media. If you've been wondering about the sudden barrage of these short clips - lip sync videos, memes or something else on those lines - it's all thanks to the Chinese mobile app, Tik Tok, that's caught the fancy of youngsters all across the world. In India alone, as per reports, the app has over 54 million monthly active users. Clearly, Tik Tok is everywhere and how.

However, just like everything else on the internet, the app has come under severe criticism. Some say it's way too addictive and not in a good way for young, impressionable minds and some others feel it could lead to severely harmful circumstances, just like the Blue Whale challenge in the past that resulted in multiple suicides. To be fair, the growing usage of Tik Tok has resulted in casualties as well - a 15 year old in Mumbai committed suicide after being scolded for using the app and a man fell into a waterfall while recording himself for a clip. But then, there's a large chunk of the population that continues to use the app for their amusement and, perhaps, doesn't agree with the claims being made by those against its usage.

But now, as per reports, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court has passed an order directing the Centre to prohibit the downloading of the Tik Tok app and also the media from telecasting videos made on the app. The bench has further questioned the Centre whether it will be enacting a statute to prevent children from becoming cyber victims in the future. This order comes on the heels of the court hearing a petition that sought a complete ban on Tik Tok saying it degraded Indian culture and encouraged pornography and that children using the app could become vulnerable and exposed to sexual predators. Echoing the sentiments of the petitioner, the court expressed major concern that the app was currently hosting pornographic content and was exposing its users to strangers online.

As you would know, TikTok is not the only one facing a probable ban. Recently, PUBG was banned in Gujarat as well (though the ban was later lifted). In the case of Tik Tok though, while the court may have passed it's order, in terms of the audience using the app, the verdict is out - the app reached the one billion download mark earlier this year and shows no signs of stopping.

Do you support the ban? Do let us know.

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