Tiktok Denies India Comeback After Reports Of Website Going Live

TikTok has not been unbanned successful India, TechCrunch confirmed Friday, contempt little website entree that sparked media reports of a imaginable comeback aft much than 5 years.

A TikTok spokesperson told TechCrunch that nan Chinese-owned societal media platform’s prohibition by nan Indian authorities remains successful place, and nan short-video level is not accessible successful nan country.

“We person not restored entree to TikTok successful India and proceed to comply pinch nan Government of India’s directive,” nan spokesperson said successful a connection emailed to TechCrunch.

A elder charismatic astatine India’s IT Ministry besides confirmed to TechCrunch, connected information of anonymity, that nan authorities has not “unblocked aliases done anything” to revoke nan prohibition imposed nether Section 69A of nan IT Act.

Earlier connected Friday, respective section media outlets — including starring Indian dailies — suggested that TikTok was making a comeback successful India aft its website was concisely accessible to some Indian users. The reports cited posts connected societal media from users who claimed nan tract loaded without a VPN — an different development, fixed that nan Indian authorities has blocked access to TikTok since precocious June 2020, erstwhile it banned nan short-video level on pinch dozens of different Chinese-linked apps amid rising tensions betwixt nan 2 countries.

The little and abrupt reappearance of TikTok successful India appears to beryllium nan consequence of a network-level misconfiguration. A akin incident occurred successful September 2022, erstwhile immoderate net work providers inadvertently unblocked TikTok and different restricted sites for definite users while applying a patch, a root acquainted pinch nan matter told TechCrunch astatine nan time.