Govt bans TikTok

The Government of Pakistan has banned TikTok due to “immoral/indecent” content being shared on the social media platform. 

According to details, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) issued instructions for the blocking of the application across the country. 

Keeping in view the complaints and nature of the content being consistently posted on TikTok, PTA issued a final notice to the application and gave it considerable time to respond and comply with the Authority instructions for the development of an effective mechanism for proactive moderation of unlawful online content.

In view of number of complaints from different segments of the society against immoral/indecent content on the video sharing application TikTok, pic.twitter.com/Vmp5umixeL

— PTA (@PTAofficialpk) October 9, 2020

However, the application failed to fully comply with the instructions, therefore, directions were issued for blocking of TikTok application in the country.

TikTok has been informed that the Authority is open for engagement and will review its decision subject to a satisfactory mechanism by TikTok to moderate unlawful content.

According to Tiktok’s transparency report, the social media app had earlier issued a statement that the company had “removed 3,728,162 user videos that were found in violation of regulations from Pakistan from July 1 to December 31, 2019, 

Earlier, in an interview, Minister for Information Minister and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz said that Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan had remarked that the video-sharing app is affecting society’s values badly and should be blocked.

 “PM Imran is extremely concerned about the ‘growing obscenity and vulgarity’ in the society and has directed all relevant sections to check the trend before it destroys the socio-religious values of Pakistani society,” Senator Faraz had said.