TikTok Is Killing Indians: Two Gruesome Deaths Happened Because Of TikTok; What Is The Reason?

If you’re on any social media platform, you must have been informed that the social video app TikTok has been quite in controversy. Due to obscene content found on the video app, the Madras High Court banned the app. It recently lifted the same.

Occurrence of recent events related to the app might cause problems to TikTok, again. Two individuals, a 24 year mother of two and a 17 year old teenage boy passed away linking to this app. The sole responsibility cannot be complied necessarily to the app, however.

The Two Morbid Incidents

Anitha, 24-year old mother of two children committed suicide on Thursday, after being scolded by her husband on intensive use of the video app. She recorded herself drinking a dark colored liquid from a white bottle (poison) and sent the video to her husband in Singapore. She died thereafter. The incident has been put on YouTube by some news channels, attracting immense criticism.

Similar incident that went viral, took place in Maharashtra‘s Ahmednagar district on Thursday. A 17 year old boy, Pratik Wadekar and his relatives, Sunny Pawar (20), Nitin Wadekar (27), a 11-year-old boy and another young man were visiting Shirdi to perform the final rituals of their family member. In their hotel room, they decided to shoot a video on TikTok with a country-made pistol that one of Pratik’s relative had brought.

The trigger was accidentally pressed and the bullet hit Pratik while shooting the TikTok video on the mobile phone. The noise created by the gunshot attracted the hotel staff, discovering Pratik’s body and his relatives trying to flee. They even threatened the staff to open fire if stopped. Police took Pratik to the government hospital where he was declared dead before admission.

A case has been registered under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder), arresting two of those relatives while one is still on loose.

TikTok Finds Itself Amidst Miscellaneous Such Incidents

This is not the first time TikTok has been linked to killings and suicide cases. The social video app claims that it has 200 million users in India, of which 120 million are active every month. Earlier a 15 year old girl from Mumbai hanged herself on her birthday after her grandmother scolded her for being addicted to the app. In April, a 19 year old from Delhi was accidentally shot by his friend while making a TikTok video.

There were discoveries of obscene and pornographic content floating around the app, which led to Madras High Court banning the app for a while. This ban was later vacated with an order that inappropriate videos shouldn’t be circulated in future, on the app, failing which contempt of court proceedings would begin.

Such incidents are sorrowful, when comes into light. Apps like TikTok cannot be completely blamed for demise of any individual. Instead, such apps should be censored for only individuals above a certain age, who can decide for themselves instead of acting in the moment.