TikTok has not been unbanned in India, as confirmed by TechCrunch on Friday. This confirmation came despite brief website access that sparked media reports of a possible comeback after more than five years.
A TikTok spokesperson stated that the Chinese-owned social media platform’s ban by the Indian government remains in place. The short-video platform is not accessible in the country. The spokesperson said they have not restored access to TikTok in India and continue to comply with the Government of India’s directive.
A senior official at India’s IT Ministry also confirmed that the government has not taken any action to revoke the ban imposed under Section 69A of the IT Act. This confirmation was provided on condition of anonymity.
Earlier on Friday, several local media outlets, including leading Indian dailies, suggested that TikTok was making a comeback in India. This was after its website was briefly accessible to some Indian users. The reports cited posts on social media from users who claimed the site loaded without a VPN. This was an unusual development, given that the Indian government has blocked access to TikTok since late June 2020. At that time, the government banned the short-video platform along with dozens of other Chinese-linked apps amid rising tensions between the two countries.
The brief and sudden reappearance of TikTok in India appears to be the result of a network-level misconfiguration. A similar incident occurred in September 2022, when some internet service providers inadvertently unblocked TikTok and other restricted sites for certain users while applying a patch.