Chinese short video-sharing platform Tik Tok (also known as Douyin in China) was banned in Indonesia on July 3.

Many users of the viral Chinese app confirmed the ban to The Beijing News on July 4, saying the application’s content has been inaccessible since Tuesday night.

Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, the organization that issued the ban, has said that Tik Tok contained substantial inappropriate content that might have had an unfavorable influence on children. The head of the ministry noted that the government would lift the ban after Tik Tok removes all illegal content and promises to regulate and maintain clean content.

Tik Tok, together with Muscal.ly, are two overseas versions of the Chinese video app Douyin, that have now entered more than 150 countries and regions. Statistics published by third-party data platform App Annie show that over the last three months, Tik Tok was among the top 20 free apps on Indonesia's App Store, even making it to number one in the video and recording subcategory. It was also one of the top five apps on Google Play’s free download list.

According to a Tik Tok statement, the app has more than 100 million overseas users, and is especially active in Indonesia, Thailand and Japan. Tik Tok's operator, Bytedance, told The Beijing News in June that the platform would run on localized operation, conforming to local customs and laws. In addition to artificial reviewing, the platform also integrated automatic content inspection.

However, analyst Tang Xin believes that it's almost impossible for user-generated-content platforms to take complete control of their content, and risks grow with the number of users and size of platform.

The Beijing News reached out to Bytedance for comment on the ban, but the company had not replied at the time of publication.