TikTok Is No Longer Banned In India But It Has Just Lost Over 2 Million Users

Indians are free to download TikTok once again after the ban is lifted. The company said that the temporary ban that lasted two days, which resulted in the brief absence of the app on Google and Apple stores, had cost it six million downloads and two million users.

The ban, although has been lifted, has had a substantial negative impact on TikTok user base, which translates to around 1 million users each day. During the course of the ban, six million download requests have been submitted, but the company could not create accounts for them — Reuters report this leak in a court filing.

Despite the gloomy future of not being able to grow its user base in India, ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, still decided to bump in over 1 billion worth of investment to the country in the next three years. According to Helena Lersch, ByteDance’s Director and Global Public Policy, TikTok has been receiving a positive response from both potential users and other associations within India. She also affirmed the safety of TikTok as they had top-notch measures on their site and their users and creators were having access to them.

What Indian politicians and parents worry about is the app may be used to spread pornography and other inappropriate content. More importantly, children may fall victim of pedophiles who prey on them using TikTok.

To oppose the ban on the download of the site, the company claimed that such prohibition might have a negative impact on free speech. One example is that if the High Court decided to implement the ban without giving the company a chance to defend itself.

This is not the first time ByteDance got into trouble with the law, which forces it to focus more on monitoring the content on its site. TikTok’s scandal might be a warning for other giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Google.