The Government of India banned 59 mobile apps including TikTok, UC Browser and other Chinese apps on Monday, 29 June, calling them "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order".
For the ban to come into effect and for these apps to be removed, the ministry will send a legal notice to Google and Apple to remove these 59 applications from their respective app stores.
As of 9:30 am on 30 June, the TikTok app has been taken down from the Google PlayStore. However, it is still available on the Apple App Store.
The second step would be to inform telecom operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country to stop the traffic of data on these applications as data is key for these apps to work. Since the ban was announced on 29 June, we are not really sure how long will the process take for these apps to cease functioning.
How to Save My Content on TikTok?
TikTok users have the chance to download and save their videos and other data from the app in case the data is deleted. Here is how to download your content on TikTok:
There are two methods to save your content from Tiktok on your phone. The first is a manual method and will be tedious based on how you many video you have uploaded in the past. The second method is to request your data directly from Tiktok.
Manual Method:
- Open TikTok and go to your profile.
- Open a video and tap the three-dot icons in the top-right corner.
- Tap "save video".
- The video will be downloaded on your device. However, the videos will carry a TikTok watermark.
Request Tiktok For Data File Method:
- Open TikTok and tap the three-dot icon in the top-right corner
- Tap Privacy and Safety
- Tap Personalisation and date
- Tap download your data
- Tap Request Data File. This will send a request to the platform to dowload your data. This process can take upto 30 days.
- Keep monitoring the app to see when the download is available in the Download Data tab. Once ready, tap on the download button.
- The data file will be available only for four days and will be expire once the duration has reached.
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