No, TikTok is not coming back to India
What's the story
After more than five years of being banned in India, TikTok is not making a comeback, TechCrunch has confirmed. The speculation stemmed from the brief accessibility of its website for some Indian users on August 22. However, a spokesperson for the Chinese-owned platform clarified that the ban imposed by the Indian government still stands, and access to TikTok remains blocked in India.
Government stance
Government has not unblocked TikTok: IT Ministry official
An official from India's IT Ministry also confirmed to TechCrunch that the government has not "unblocked or done anything" to lift the ban under Section 69A of the IT Act. This was corroborated by a TikTok spokesperson who said, "We have not restored access to TikTok in India and continue to comply with the Government of India's directive."
Technical glitch
Incident similar to September 2022
The temporary and unexpected reappearance of TikTok in India is likely due to a network-level misconfiguration. A similar incident had happened in September 2022 when some internet service providers accidentally unblocked TikTok and other banned sites for select users while applying a patch. Notably, the app remains unavailable on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store despite website access for some users without a VPN.