'Not promoting activity that may cause harm': TiKTok after boy's death

New Delhi: The mobile app team of TikTok on Saturday expressed concern after a 12-year-old boy allegedly hung himself while attempting to shoot and upload his video on the app. The TikTok team in its statement said they were not promoting any hashtag challenge or activity on its app that might cause harm to oneself.

"We would like to confirm that there is no such hashtag challenge or activity that TikTok is promoting on its app. TikTok in no way endorses, promotes or encourages its users to engage in any behaviour that might cause harm to oneself or anyone else either via challenges or content published," TikTok team said in a statement.

"We have a zero-tolerance policy on content and behaviour that is against our community guidelines," they



added.

The TikTok team expressed condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.

"Initial probe suggests that boy might have killed himself accidentally while trying to make a video for Tik Tok," the police said.

The boy had hung himself from a noose in the bathroom. His family said that when they found the body of the class 6 boy, he was wearing "sindoor", "mangalsutra" and bangles for a TikTok challenge.

"If it was not for TikTok, then my child would have been alive," the father of the boy said.

The boy died while he was being taken to hospital. His body was shifted to a government hospital for post-mortem.

The police are carrying out investigation and a case has also been filed.