India will not lift ban on TikTok, says IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw
New Delhi: Union Minister for IT, Information and Broadcasting, and Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw, has categorically stated that there is no proposal before the government to allow TikTok back into India. In an interview with Moneycontrol, Vaishnaw dismissed reports of a possible re-entry by the Chinese-owned short-video app. “There is absolutely no proposal which has come from any quarters,” he said, adding that the issue has not even been discussed at the policy level.
Speculation about TikTok’s comeback had resurfaced last month when the platform’s website briefly became accessible to some users in India via certain networks, including Airtel and Vodafone. The short-lived glitch fuelled online chatter that ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, was preparing to resume operations. Officials have now clarified that the accessibility was accidental and unrelated to any formal process.
TikTok, along with 58 other Chinese applications, was blocked by the Centre in June 2020 over concerns linked to data security and user privacy. The ban was later made permanent in January 2021. Before the restrictions, India was TikTok’s largest market, accounting for more than 200 million users. ByteDance had also launched other platforms like Helo and CapCut, which faced similar action. Its music streaming service, Resso, exited the Indian market after app store removals.
On the broader question of Chinese participation in India’s technology ecosystem, Vaishnaw underlined that the government would act with openness. “Policies will be clearly shared with everybody. We are a very transparent country,” he noted.
Chinese firms such as Tencent, Alibaba, Ant Financial and Shunwei Capital had been prominent investors in Indian startups across e-commerce, fintech and digital content. However, foreign direct investment rules introduced in April 2020 mandated prior government approval for investors from neighbouring countries, significantly slowing Chinese funding activity in India.
