The Madras High Court on Wednesday lifted its ban on downloading the Chinese video-sharing app TikTok, subject to a condition that pornographic videos would not be uploaded on it, NDTV reported. The court had imposed the temporary ban on April 3, on the ground that the app was responsible for spreading pornography, potentially exposing children to sexual predators, and adversely impacting users' mental health. Google and Apple removed the app from their app stores on April 18 under HC direction. TikTok appealed to the Supreme Court against the order, where the Madras HC was directed to rule on TikTok's appeal by April 24, failing which the ban would cease to operate. It is worth nothing that the ban only applied to downloads of the app, and existing users were able continue to its usage. TikTok has an estimated 120 million users in India, by far its largest market, as per The Verge. https://twitter.com/ETNOWlive/status/1121037926723248128?s=08 TikTok argued that there was technology in place to ensure that obscene content was not uploaded through the app. It also filed a counter-affidavit explaining its security measures and machine-moderation which would prevent uploads of videos with obscenity or nudity. Arvind Datar, amicus curiae in the matter, elaborated on Intermediary Liability protections under the IT Act to explain the scope of exemption for platforms under Section 79, and said that intermediaries were not required to screen all content hosted on their platform. He explained the balance between freedom of speech and expression under Article 19 (including online speech) and…
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