Chennai: The popular Chinese app TikTok is back in the news in Tamil Nadu after the government has been requested to ban it.

Nagapattinam MLA Thamimun Ansari brought the topic on the floor of the Tamil Nadu Assembly requesting the government to ban it. The minister expressed his concern about law and problems stating that the youth were addicted to the app causing a "cultural degradation". He also added that sexually explicit content and morphing of innocents took place rampantly on the app.

In view of this, Information Technology minister M Manikandan stated that the government of Tamil Nadu would recommend the Centre to ban the app on the same lines in which the Blue Whale Challenge app was banned.

MLA Thamimun Ansari went on to say that he received several calls appreciating his call for a ban on the Chinese app.

However, users of this popular app oppose the move vehemently. Speaking to MyNation, Ramya, who is an active user of the app, stated that the app itself is not the problem as much as trolls are.

She said, "Videos are being misused by social media users or trolls. The mindset of these people is the problem."

As far as safeguarding the videos, Ramya spoke about changes that can be made in the settings option. "The download option can be turned off and no one will be able to download it and misuse it," added Ramya. She had earlier filed a complaint with the cyber crime police in Bengaluru after her TikTok videos were misused online.
 
Although TikTok was launched to allow users to upload and view lip-synced videos, the app soon turned into a veritable trap for unsuspecting school and college going girls and in some instances, housewives.

The Chennai Police had even busted a flesh trade racket which lured customers by using morphed images of women from the app. The tragic death of a youth was reported when he slashed his own throat while trying to create a video.

Created by ByteDance, a Chinese internet technology company, TikTok gained massive popularity across Asia with over 500 million users.

In India, it is largely used by the people to enact popular videos or film scenes and share their own versions of it. The app also has a variety of filters and editing features to make the videos attractive for the users.