China’s TikTok back in India? Government rejects social media reports

Notably, in February this year, many of the Chinese apps that were banned in 2020 following the India-China border tensions made a return to the Play Store in India as diplomatic relations between the two countries improved.

Apps like Xender, and TanTan, among a bunch of others were available for download once again, but TikTok—by far the most popular of these apps in India—remained conspicuously absent.

While some of these apps returned with tweaks, others made a comeback in cloned versions.

India Today’s Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) team reviewed more than 200 of the banned mobile applications and found that original or clone versions of at least 36 of them were available either on Google’s Play Store or Apple’s App Store or on both platforms as of February 10.

INDIA BANNED TIKTOK IN 2020

On June 29, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government abruptly banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese-owned apps, citing data security concerns.

While some of these apps have returned with tweaks, others made comeback in cloned versions.

The Indian government accused TikTok — owned by the Chinese tech giant ByteDance — of misusing data and acting as a tool for espionage.

The decision came just two weeks after a deadly clash between Chinese and Indian troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/tiktok-aliexpress-websites-back-in-india-after-5-years-still-unavailable-on-app-2775483-2025-08-22