A TikTok Craze Is Minting Celebrities and Ruining Lives in India

  • India is app’s biggest market with 200 million-plus users
  • Backlash growing amid security, privacy, decency concerns
A sign in the Jama Masjid mosque in New Delhi prohibiting the TikTok app.
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Arpita Chaudhary, a newly recruited police constable in India’s western Gujarat state, became an overnight celebrity after posting a clip of her 15-second gambol -- clad in her civvies -- on the smash-hit social video app, TikTok.

Then she paid the price. A snippet of her gyrating to a Bollywood song against the backdrop of a prison cell went viral and, days later, Chaudhary was suspended from her job. She had danced inside the police station while on duty.