TikTok India refutes rumours that it'll move court against ban, says working with govt to resolve concerns

TikTok India issued a statement on Wednesday denying rumours that the company was seeking to drag the Centre to court over the ban imposed on its app, which had millions of Indians as its users. The company said, “We have no such plans. We are committed to working with the government to address its concerns,” Bar and bench quoted the TikTok India spokesperson as saying.

Tiktok issues a statement on rumours about Legal Action - @TikTok_IN: "We have no plans to pursue such action. We are committed to working with the government to address its concerns." #tiktokbanned #TikTok pic.twitter.com/wFeF200saU

— Bar and Bench (@barandbench) July 2, 2020

The news comes after prominent lawyers like Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Mukul Rohtagi said they will not defend the company in court. “I won a case for them in the Supreme Court a year ago, but don’t intend to appear in this one,” Singhvi was quoted as saying by NDTV. Reports said that Rohtagi, who served as the country’s Attorney General till 2017, had also reportedly turned down an offer from the Chinese app to appear on its behalf in court. This comes days after India blocked 59 apps including TikTok, SHAREit and UC Browser. The government had on Monday banned 59 Chinese applications saying they were prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity, and security of the country. A day later popular short video app TikTok was taken down from Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The other 58 Chinese apps have now been removed. “The apps engaged in activities prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India and the security of state and public order,” the government said on the ban. Soon after the ban, TikTok stopped showing up in search results on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Some users searching for TikTok on Google Play ended up seeing some clone apps. The Apple App Store showed ‘helper apps’ like VideoSplit for TikTok, but not the TikTok app itself. After the ban was announced on Monday night, TikTok India head Nikhil Gandhi said the company is in the process of complying with the order and has been invited to meet with concerned government stakeholders for an opportunity to respond and submit clarifications. With inputs from PTI