Back in 2019, TikTok was India’s national pastime. Over 200 million people were glued to it. You had school kids syncing to Bollywood dialogues, uncles and aunties shooting comedy sketches, and small-town teens becoming micro-celebrities. Then June 2020 rolled around, and the government banned TikTok overnight, along with 58 other Chinese apps, after border clashes with China. Creators were devastated, ByteDance laid off staff, and Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts swooped in like hyenas on leftovers.
Now in 2025, TikTok rumours are swirling again. A website glitch, ByteDance job listings, and even some high-level Modi–Xi handshakes at the SCO summit have people whispering about a comeback. Officials deny it. ByteDance denies it. But the buzz refuses to die.
TikTok’s ban and fallout.
The TikTok ban wasn’t subtle. India justified it on grounds of “sovereignty and security” which was just their diplomatic way of telling China where they can shove their spyware. The timing, right after Galwan Valley, made the message loud and clear.
The consequences were brutal. Millions of Indian creators saw their income vanish. ByteDance fired most of its India workforce. In the vacuum, Meta and Google moved in with Reels and Shorts, now carving up what’s become a $15 billion short-video market. Local apps Moj and Josh tried to keep up, but they’ve been riding shotgun while Meta and Google drive the car. And there’s precedent for comebacks. PUBG was banned too, but reappeared as “Battlegrounds Mobile India” with a local partner slapped on. ByteDance, for its part, still operates business apps in India, while shutting down others like Resso. In short: they never fully left.
Why the rumors started.
So why are we suddenly talking about TikTok again?
First, the glitch. In late August, Indian users suddenly found TikTok’s homepage loading without a VPN. Screenshots flew across social media like wildfire. It turned out to be a boring network misconfiguration, the kind of bug engineers fix in an afternoon. But people acted like it was a second coming.
Second, job postings. Around August 30, ByteDance advertised roles in Gurugram, including content moderation and wellbeing management. That’s like waving a red flag in front of a crowd that’s been waiting five years for TikTok’s return.
And third, timing. Just as this buzz was spreading, Modi met Xi Jinping for the first time in seven years. Add in Nepal quietly unbanning TikTok, and everyone started connecting dots that weren’t there.
The official line.
Indian officials have repeated themselves: the ban is still in force. No orders have been lifted. If TikTok wants to come back, it will need to store Indian data in India, pass security audits, and show it can play by India’s rules. ByteDance too insists it’s not relaunching TikTok in India. The job ads were said to be for global support roles and the glitch was just a technical error. Media outlets have backed this up, calling the hype “false and misleading”. Kids, this is why you don’t believe everything you read on Twitter.
What if it did return?
If TikTok really did come back, the impact would be immediate. India’s 650 million internet users are a goldmine, and TikTok’s algorithm still runs circles around its rivals. Meta and Google would sweat. Creators would rejoice. Advertisers would spend.
But the same old worries would resurface — about privacy, about Beijing’s influence, about cultural politics. A local partner could soften things (the Hiranandani Group’s name gets tossed around), but this would still be a geopolitical story, not just a business one.
This is where it gets funny though. My roommate literally just bought a ring light last week. I saw him unpack it, bubble wrap everywhere, like he was cradling a newborn. He’s convinced TikTok is about to rise from the grave, and he’s ready to pounce. He missed the first wave, but not this time. I caught him staring at himself for a little too long in the mirror yesterday. So, if you ask me how it feels to share a room with India’s next “transition king”, it’s great (help).
On Twitter (still hard to call it X), former creators are tweeting about it day and night. Others are side-eyeing the whole thing, reminding everyone why TikTok was banned in the first place. Influencers, never ones to waste a rumour, are churning out TikTok comeback content to farm views on YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. The irony is lost on no one.
So, it’s not coming back?
Yes, TikTok isn’t back. Not yet. The ban is intact, ByteDance is denying everything, and the government isn’t budging. What we’re seeing is India’s favourite pastime: speculating wildly about tech and politics over half-baked evidence.
Still, the fact that a glitch, a job posting, and a diplomatic handshake can spark this level of frenzy says a lot about us as a society. TikTok left a void, and five years later, people are still trying to fill it. Until policy changes, though, the chikni chameli dance stays in the archives. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go apply to ByteDance because clearly the joblessness is getting to me.
This isn’t the only internet drama we’re obsessing over. Read more here.