TIL that a specific TikTok dance trend got banned in India last month

I was scrolling through random news sites on my lunch break and found out India banned the "Chal Tera" challenge on TikTok for being too vulgar. It was like a 15 second hip thrust move that went viral with over 2 million posts. The government cited obscenity laws from 1860 to take it down. Thing is, similar dances on Instagram Reels are still up and running fine. Has anyone else run into random bans that seem super inconsistent like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

kevin_carr1d ago

But is it really that inconsistent though? India has way stricter laws about what's allowed on domestic platforms like TikTok compared to foreign ones like Instagram. From what I read, TikTok had already been in hot water with the Indian government over data privacy stuff, so they might have been looking for any excuse to crack down. Instagram Reels is run by a US company with more legal muscle and different server locations. Either way, the "Chal Tera" move was pretty over-the-top, and the obscenity law from 1860 gives them a broad brush to swing at anything they don't like. Maybe the inconsistency is actually the point, sending a message to TikTok without starting a full trade war.

gavin_kim31d ago

It was called the "Chal Tera" challenge, actually not a specific dance trend just the move.