Maharashtra: TikTok star Dinesh Pawar devastated after app ban

The instant-video sharing app TikTok was one of the most popular social media platforms in the country, that has given fame to many of it's user base hailing from the rural countryside and hinterland.

A report in ThePrint described the pain which Dinesh Pawar, a resident of Maharashtra's Dhule district, and his wives had to go through as they came to know that the government has placed a ban on the social media platform over which Pawar and his wives had over 30 Lakh followers, which they had gathered with their dance performances on 1990s Bollywood songs.

"We were devastated but we realised that it's not only us. Both my wives saw the news and cried like anything. This ban hurts millions of people like us," he said. "We have decided to move on to YouTube," Dinesh Pawar was quoted as saying.

Amid border tensions with China in Eastern Ladakh, the government on Monday banned 59 mobile apps including Tik Tok, UC Browser and other Chinese apps "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity and defence" of the country.