TikTok isn’t back — just a 'glitch' in the system

Every few months, like clockwork, India’s TikTok obsession re-erupts in a haze of glitches, memes, and ministerial statements. This time, the trigger was simple: TikTok’s website briefly loaded in India — no VPN tricks, no underground hacks, just a sudden 'About Us' page popping up like an unwanted guest. And of course, the internet went into meltdown.

But here’s the blunt truth, courtesy the Indian Express and government officials: TikTok remains banned under Section 69A of the IT Act. No policy has changed, no secret nod has been given, and no one is dancing their way back onto the app.

What users saw was nothing more than a technical quirk at the ISP level. The app itself is still very much dead — no downloads, no logins, no uploads. Unless you enjoy staring at a static homepage, you’re out of luck.

TikTok speaks, government shouts louder

The buzz grew loud enough that ByteDance itself had to issue a statement to TechCrunch, declaring: “We have not restored access to TikTok in India and continue to comply with the Government of India’s directive.”

Meanwhile, the ministry of electronics and IT chimed in with the kind of stern phrasing normally reserved for Constitutional crises: “No unblocking order has been issued for TikTok. Any such talk is false and misleading.”

Translation: stop clutching your ring lights, TikTok isn’t sneaking back.

Cue the political theatre

No Indian controversy is complete without political pot-shots. The Congress party compared the sudden return of TikTok’s homepage to India signing a ceasefire with Pakistan — an unsubtle jab at the government for allegedly going soft on China. On social media, meanwhile, memes did their usual heavy lifting: screenshots of the TikTok website sparked a frenzy of 'It’s back!' posts before fact-checkers swooped in to stamp them out.

Some of these apps managed Houdini-style re-entries:

• PUBG Mobile returned under a new, 'Indianised' banner as Battlegrounds Mobile India.

• Shein, once a fast-fashion darling, pulled off a far cleverer trick — re-entering India via a partnership with Reliance Retail. The Reliance-licensed Shein brand now sells clothing designed and manufactured in India, neatly sidestepping the ban’s rationale.

But AliExpress, like TikTok, remains banished — its website occasionally flickering alive in browsers, but its app firmly inaccessible.

Reliance x TikTok: The ghost deal

Back in 2020, rumours swirled that Reliance was circling TikTok’s Indian operations in a multibillion-dollar deal. It never materialised. And five years later, despite the occasional whisper, there’s still no partnership between Reliance and ByteDance. The only Reliance–China tie-up of note is the Shein licensing arrangement, which regulators tolerate because it technically keeps Chinese equity out of India.

The punchline (because this is basically farce)

So where are we in 2025?

• TikTok app: Still banned. Not available in any Indian app store.

• Website access: A glitch, nothing more. About as useful as a chocolate teapot.

• Other Chinese apps: PUBG’s back in disguise, Shein’s back in Reliance’s clothes, AliExpress is twitching, but TikTok is still locked out.

• Politics: Opposition cries foul, government thumps the table, social media loses its collective mind.

If you were hoping for TikTok’s triumphant return, keep dreaming. The only 'comeback' is the homepage trolling Indian users with a bland corporate splash screen.

And so India’s post-TikTok short-video scene remains dominated by local players like Moj, Josh, and TakaTak — none of whom need ByteDance’s algorithms to keep the reels spinning.

Honestly, you’d get more consistency from your ex than from this endless TikTok soap opera.