Pakistan has barred the Chinese social media app TikTok from filtering out “immoral and obscene” content, the country’s telecommunications authority said. Pakistan is an Islamic republic, and the content of TikTok is not pleasant to watch in that republic.
The decision was taken following several complaints from different segments of society, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) said in a statement on Friday. “Keeping in view the complaints and nature of the content being consistently posted on TikTok, PTA issued a final notice to the application,” the statement said. “However, the application failed to fully comply with the instructions. Therefore, directions were issued for blocking of TikTok application in the country.”
The PTA said TikTok has been informed the regulator is open to engagement and will review its decision subject to a satisfactory mechanism by TikTok to moderate unlawful content.
TikTok, owned by China-based Byte Dance, has been caught in a global fire-storm due to security and privacy concerns. It has also been banned in India and faces criticism in countries from Australia to the United States.
LOOK WHAT JANNAT MIRZA AND HAREEM SHAH HAS TO SAY ABOUT TIKTOK GETTING BANNED.
The decision was taken after Prime Minister Imran Khan took a keen interest in the matter, a government official told the Reuters News Agency, adding that Khan had instructed the telecommunications authorities to make every effort to block material considered vulgar in the conservative country.
The step comes months after Bigo Live’s live streaming service was banned for the same cause, and YouTube’s video-sharing site was warned to censor “vulgarity and hate speech.” Dating app Tinder has also been banned by the Pakistani authorities in recent months.
