Indian youth kills friend over TikTok video – The New Indian Express
What happened: A youth in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu is accused of killing his friend after a TikTok video they uploaded together sparked protests in their village. The two went into hiding after realizing the controversy sparked by their video, in which the accused spoke ill of a particular community within their village. While in hiding, the two friends quarreled and the accused allegedly struck the deceased with a blunt instrument, killing him. The accused then surrendered to the police.
Why it’s important: This latest incident could potentially further aggravate the relationship between Indian lawmakers and Bytedance, which has been under fire for not regulating hate speech and sexually explicit content on its short video app platforms.The incident comes just two weeks after the Tamil Nadu state government initiated a dialogue with the lower house of India’s legislature for a statewide ban on the short video app for spreading harmful content. Bytedance pledged to step up its cooperation with law enforcement agencies in response.