TikTok gets rib-tickling send-off memes from Twitter users as India bans 59 Chinese apps

In what is being touted on social media as India's 'digital surgical strike' on China, the TikTok app users seem to have lost out on their source of entertainment. The video making app had millions of subscribers in India but will now be inaccessible in the Indian subcontinent. Ever since the announcement of the ban, social media has hilarious celebratory memes flying in all directions.

Netizens have given the ban on 59 Chinese apps a Bollywood twist and more to make rib-tickling memes under the label #RIPTikTok.

Here are some funny memes: 

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Read | Govt of India bans 59 Chinese apps; Tik Tok, UC Browser, WeChat included in the list

The ban on the Chinese apps comes in the backdrop of current stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh with Chinese troops.  The list of apps that have been banned also includes WeChat, Helo, Likee, CamScanner, Vigo Video, Mi Video Call  Xiaomi, Clash of Kings as well as e-commerce platforms Club Factory and Shein.

The Information Technology Ministry in a statement said it has received many complaints from various sources, including several reports about the misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for "stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India".

"The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures," the statement said.

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TikTok India issues first response

Within hours of being banned by the Indian Government along with 58 other China-origin apps, TikTok India on Tuesday has issued a statement. Nikhil Gandhi, Head of TikTok India, has said that the app is in the process of complying with the government's 'interim order'. 

"We have been invited to meet concerned government stakeholders for an opportunity to respond and submit clarifications. TikTok continues to comply with all data privacy and security requirements under Indian law and has not shared any information of our users in India with any foreign government, including the Chinese government," the statement reads. "Further we are requested to in the future we would not do so. We place the highest importance on user privacy and integrity," it added.

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