No unblocking of TikTok: Sources as website goes live in India

New Delhi: The government has not issued any order to unblock Chinese social media platform TikTok, official sources said late on Friday.

Reports to the contrary started surfacing after some people were able to access the TikTok website on their desktop browsers.

"The Government of India has not issued any unblocking order for TikTok. Any such statement or news is false and misleading," a source in the government said.

TikTok was one of the platforms blocked by the government after clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan valley in eastern Ladakh in June 2020.

NewsDrum staff in New Delhi were able to load TikTok's About page at the newsroom on Friday night; a screenshot of the live page is published with this report.

However, other pages such as Newsroom, Career and other urls remained inactive in India.

AliExpress’s website was also accessible for some users, although, like TikTok, its app remains unavailable in India, reinforcing that web access alone does not signal regulatory clearance. 

However, unlike TikTok website, AliExpress.com's all pages remains live as on Saturday moning.

Initially, 59 apps including TikTok, UC Browser, Shein etc., were blocked in June 2020 and later, more apps including PUBG were blocked by the government.

All the platforms continue to be blocked in accordance with the government order.