It’s looking for a content moderator (Bengali speaker) and wellbeing partnership and operations lead.
The development has triggered speculation among former users and employees about a possible return of TikTok. The company’s website recently became accessible again in India.
However, government insiders ET spoke to maintain that TikTok continues to remain banned in the country.
The government has not issued any unblocking orders for TikTok to resume services in India, officials said.
On August 22, officials had similarly refuted claims of the Chinese platform being allowed back in India. This had come after reports had emerged of TikTok being accessible in India for the first time in five years.
While the landing page on the TikTok website earlier used to display a message that its service was not available in India, last week it began displaying the platform’s ‘About Us’ page when accessed by desktop. However, videos were not accessible.
As of Saturday, TikTok’s mobile website continues to be unreachable even on desktop and its content too is not visible. The app also continues to be unavailable for download on the Android Play Store.
“We have not restored access to TikTok in India and continue to comply with the Government of India’s directive,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement to ET.
India had banned TikTok along with 58 other Chinese apps in June 2020, citing national security concerns following the Galwan Valley clash between Indian and Chinese troops.
Bilateral relations are showing signs of improvement in recent days. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently visiting China after over seven year.
ByteDance’s offerings like Helo and CapCut were also banned in 2020. But the Chinese social media giant’s music streaming app Resso and ‘all-in-one’ productivity app Lark thrived in India. While Resso counted India as among its largest markets in January 2024, the app had to shut shop in the country, marking the end of ByteDance’s last direct consumer-facing venture in India.
“Unfortunately, owing to local market conditions, we can no longer continue to serve users of Resso in India,” a ByteDance spokesperson had said at the time. “We have, therefore, taken the decision to shut down Resso and its associated operations on January 31. Users will be offered a refund of their remaining subscription fees.”
Lark continues to operate in India.
