Visakhapatnam: Chinese app with obscene content draws outrage

• All India Democratic Women's Association State president B Prabhavati says any app that promotes objectionable content needs to be blocked

• POW State general secretary M Lakshmi says the government should exercise control over apps and the vulgar content on TikTok should be censored before it gets forwarded

Visakhapatnam: Amid hostilities between India and China at LAC, the short video content Chinese app TikTok draws outrage among netizens.

As many installed the short video app to overcome lockdown blues, a section of the 'TikTokers' are using the platform to share sexual and violent content.

Even when various outfits and people's groups have been campaigning hard to uninstall a range of Chinese communication apps, TikTok tops the list as some of its users share repulsive videos under the garb of 'entertainment.' No wonder, the short video sharing app has come under intense scrutiny in the recent past.

With the present standoff between India and China and the tense situation prevailing between the two nations adding fuel, the demand to ban TikTok, the most downloaded Chinese app, along with a host of apps originated in China gain steam.

Expressing her views on filtering off the obscene content before getting uploaded, All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) state president B Prabhavati says, "Any app that promotes objectionable content needs to be blocked. TikTok is no exception. With easy access to smartphones, onus lies on the users to avoid viewing and sharing indecent videos through mobile Apps as it is distracting the netizens who tend to spend more time browsing."

Laying emphasis on better monitoring mechanism, Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee district president T Sriramamurthy shares, "The craze for uploading the videos on TikTok, sharing them and boosting the number of 'likes' they garnered has become an emerging trend. Such apps encourages viewers, youth in particular, to become perverts as they circulate stuff sans any inhibition and with a sole aim to draw eyeballs. The only way to control forwarding obscene content is to enhance censorship."

At a time when politically objectionable content could be monitored and those forwarding them could be taken into custody, many wonders how nudity, rape and violence circulated on social media platforms remain unchecked. "Government should exercise control over apps and the vulgar content on TikTok should be censored before it gets forwarded. An effective monitoring system should be in place against those promoting indecent content on the App that glorifies rape and violence," opines M Lakshmi, state general secretary of POW.

Meanwhile, the Indian App Chingari, which has similar features of TikTok, steadily gaining popularity as many replace the Chinese app with the Indian one and find it a better alternative.