The government has officially debunked rumors of the short-video app’s return after a technical glitch made the website briefly accessible to some users. Both the company and the Ministry of Electronics and IT have confirmed that the ban, which began in 2020, remains in effect.
August 25, 2025: The Indian government and TikTok have both formally put an end to hopes for the app’s big return to the Indian market. The clarification comes after a minor network problem let some people momentarily access the website of the short-video platform, which led to a lot of speculation about a prospective reopening.
People got excited when they saw that they could access the TikTok website without a VPN. The site has been prohibited since June 2020. AliExpress, another restricted app, had the same thing happen. But a TikTok spokesman promptly put an end to the allegations. The official told TechCrunch, “We have not restored access to TikTok in India and continue to follow the Government of India’s order.”
A government source from the Ministry of Electronics and IT also stated that there is no directive to unlock the app. “The Indian government has not told TikTok to unblock.” The source said, “Any such statement or news is false and misleading.”
A “network-level misconfiguration,” which is a technological mistake that has happened before, is what caused the website to come back. In 2022, something similar happened when some operators accidentally unblocked the platform while trying to fix it.
The Indian government banned TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps because they were worried about data privacy and national security because of tensions with China. The app is still banned in India because both the company and the government have said that no policy change has been made.