TikTok made stars out of these villagers in India; then it was banned

Members of the City Youth Organisation hold posters with the logos of Chinese apps in support of the Indian government for banning the wildly popular video-sharing ‘TikTok’ app, in Hyderabad on June 30, 2020. — AFP

MUMBAI, India: About a year ago, Sangita Gaikwad’s teenage daughter Mona introduced her to TikTok. Like many first-time users of the quirky video-sharing app, Gaikwad, a homemaker in a farming village in western India, was baffled.

What would she want with an infinite stream of 15-second clips showing strangers dancing, lip-syncing and reenacting memes on their phones?