After India’s high court last month lifted a temporary ban on popular videosharing app TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, it shot up the list of Apple’s and Google’s most downloaded apps. With aggressive promotions, including cash prizes, TikTok rocketed from 90th position on India’s Google Play store to 15th on May 1, a day after the ban was lifted, according to analytics firm App Annie. One man, however, says he is waiting for another chance to bring down the app that has accumulated more than 120 million active users since it was launched last year in India. How Chinese video app TikTok conquered the world Muthukumar Sankaran, 47, began legal proceedings against ByteDance – the world’s most valuable start-up, estimated to be worth US$75 billion – accusing it of spreading questionable content, including hate speech and sexually explicit material. Bytedance had argued that the ban was a denial of free speech for millions of app users in India. Sankaran, a lawyer and social activist, says TikTok deployed no fewer than 15 senior lawyers at the Madras High Court in southern India on April 24. As part of the April 24 court verdict, TikTok was asked to agree to conditions including the swift tackling of complaints, updated privacy settings and removal of explicit content. According to Indian media, fans of the app came out on Twitter to cheer the court order. “The court has only lifted the interim ban while the main case is still pending and that will be heard later,” said Sankaran, who hails from the modest temple town of Madurai in Tamil Nadu state. “If TikTok is found hosting any content peddling child abuse, pornography, degradation of women, a threat to national security or Indian culture, the contempt procedures will kick in automatically.” TikTok was already engaged in a battle of perception in India, where it has been accused of spreading fake news and inciting caste violence. Sankaran went a step further, under a law that allows individuals or a group to file cases to defend the interests of the public. I wanted to create awareness among the public to show how socially hazardous such apps can be Muthukumar Sankaran The activist is no stranger to high-profile cases. In his 21-year career, Sankaran has taken on causes including LGBT discrimination, animal rights, voters’ protection and illegal alcohol sales. The TikTok fight is his 147th case involving public interest litigation (PIL), coming just as ByteDance plans to expand its operations in India and invest up to US$1 billion in the country. Sankaran began legal proceedings after a young girl approached him for help. Unknown perpetrators crudely edited her videos on TikTok and inserted sexually explicit content to suggest she was a prostitute, and circulated them. Sankaran went to the local police’s cybercrime department, which was unable to remove the videos from TikTok. “This is a horrible situation where one cannot even register their grievance,” Sankaran said. “That’s when I decided this needed to be fought. I wanted to create awareness among the public to show how socially hazardous such apps can be.” In early April, the Madras High Court placed a ban on downloading the app, which can be used by anyone above the age of 13. The ban was only for new downloads but there was no decision on users who had already installed it on their phones. TikTok said it lost up to US$500,000 a day and dozens of jobs were threatened by the ban. On April 3, the Madras High Court ordered a temporary ban on TikTok. This was later lifted on April 24. “While we’re pleased that our efforts to fight against misuse of the platform have been recognised, the work is never done on our end,” TikTok said after the ban was lifted. “We are committed to continuously enhancing our safety features as a testament to our ongoing commitment to our users in India.” TikTok has since rolled out new safety measures including more control over notifications and more user control over login settings. Also, an in-house security quiz has been introduced to educate users. “The launch of our age-gate feature in addition to the recent takedown of 6 million videos that violate our community guidelines reinforces our ongoing commitment to ensure that our platform remains a safe and positive space for our Indian users and we discharge our obligations under the Intermediary Guidelines of India in a meaningful manner,” said Helena Lersch, TikTok’s director of global public policy. We are committed to continuously enhancing our safety features TikTok Sankaran’s fight against TikTok and the court’s abrupt ban created ripples in the Indian tech industry, polarising the opinions of experts as well as the public. Some raised concerns the court’s overreach could curtail freedom of speech in the country. Asked why he targeted TikTok when several other social media networks could also be manipulated for abuse, Sankaran alleged a deliberate attempt by Chinese to corrupt young Indian minds. “The app encourages youth not just to indulge in frivolous activities but to go against Indian ethos and culture,” he said, citing TikTok’s legal troubles in other countries. “Some countries like the United States and Indonesia have woken up to such potential dangers.” Indonesia and Bangladesh placed a brief ban on TikTok, while ByteDance agreed to pay US$5.7 million to the Federal Trade Commission in the US for illegally collecting data about children without the consent of their parents. Sankaran has more legal proceedings planned against ByteDance in India. “The problem is even more pronounced given most of TikTok’s users are from smaller towns and quasi-urban regions of India, with little exposure to how our grievance redressal systems or judiciary work,” he said.