TikTok website live in India after five-year ban; app still unavailable

New Delhi: TikTok’s website was reachable for some users in India on Friday, even as the app remained unavailable on Google Play and the Apple App Store. There has been no official confirmation from TikTok or parent ByteDance on a return to the Indian market. 

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

Some users elsewhere reported they still could not access the site, indicating that availability is inconsistent and not a formal relaunch. 

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. 

India banned TikTok in June 2020 along with 58 other Chinese apps, citing national security and data-sovereignty concerns. 

The government had said the apps were engaged in activities prejudicial to the country’s sovereignty and public order. TikTok lost access to an Indian user base estimated at more than 200 million at the time. 

For brands and agencies, today’s development does not change operating assumptions: with the app still off Indian app stores and no clarity from either the government or ByteDance, marketers are treating the limited website accessibility as non-actionable.