TikTok India begins hiring in Gurgaon, ban remains in place

New Delhi: TikTok India has started recruiting for two positions at its Gurgaon office. The company has posted jobs on LinkedIn for “Content Moderator (Bengali Speaker) Trust and Safety” and “Wellbeing Partnership and Operations Lead, Trust and Safety.”

The hiring follows reports that the TikTok India website became accessible in recent weeks, prompting speculation that the ban on the app might have been lifted.

As per the report, TikTok and other banned apps remain unavailable on Google Play Store and Apple App Store, and reports of the app being accessible were incorrect.

TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, was among 59 mobile applications banned by the Indian government in June 2020. Other apps included UC Browser and WeChat. The government had cited concerns that these apps were prejudicial to India’s sovereignty, security, and public order.

Before the ban, TikTok had an estimated 200 million users in India. Concerns over Chinese-made hardware and software, including potential backdoors, have been cited both in India and internationally, particularly in relation to 5G networking equipment, according to the report.