Orissa HC wants TikTok to be regulated

The spotlight turns once again on the Chinese social media app, TikTok, after the Orissa High Court says the mobile app needs to be regulated for its negative impact on the society.

The court added that the government has social responsibility to put a fair regulatory burden on companies which help in proliferating such applications. "TikTok mobile app which often demonstrates a degrading culture, and encourages pornography besides paedophiles, and explicit disturbing content, is required to be properly regulated so as to save teens from its negative impact," observed Justice SK Panigrahi.

The court made these observations while granting bail to a woman whose husband had committed suicide after watching her intimate TikTok videos with another person. The woman and the co-accused face allegations of direct and indirect mental torture on the deceased.

“It appears that the TikTok videos in the instant case has become the cause for tragic end of an innocent life,” Justice Panigrahi said.

The accused's husband from Dhanupali area, Samabalpur district, ended his life on July 13 last year by hanging himself from the ceiling fan of his bedroom.

The accused had married the deceased on February 21 last year. Prior to her marriage, she was allegedly in a relationship with the co-accused, who sent some of her intimate TikTok videos to her husband and also uploaded those on social media..