MUMBAI, India — TikTok, the Chinese video app whose growth has been as viral as one of its lip-synced dance clips, has encountered a roadblock in India.

Google and Apple removed TikTok from their app stores in India late Tuesday after the country’s Supreme Court refused to block a lower court order halting new downloads. The lower court, based in Tamil Nadu State, is hearing a petition seeking a ban on the app, on the grounds that it spreads pornography and threatens the well-being of children.

TikTok, which has 120 million users in India and more than half a billion worldwide, has been particularly popular with children and young adults because its tools make it easy to record, share and watch short videos.

[How TikTok is changing social media.]

But it has also come under increasing scrutiny from governments around the world, including the United States, for allowing users to post objectionable content and for pushing children to share too much information with strangers.