Pakistan has banned popular short video sharing app TikTok, citing circulation of “immoral and indecent ” videos.
[box]UPDATE: The Pakistan’s Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has lifted its ban on TikTok on October 19, stating TikTok “assured” the agency that videos will be moderated “in accordance with societal norms and the laws of Pakistan.”[/box]
It’s almost like a TikTok ban has become a trend, something countries have to do to get noticed. Or could it be TikTok’s strange way of driving publicity?
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Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said in a statement that despite the warnings and months-long time, TikTok “failed to comply with the instructions, therefore, directions were issued for blocking of TikTok application in the country.”
The authority had received a “number of complaints from different segments of the society” over the videos, it said. The fact is that Pakistan did indeed raise serious concerns about the nature of some content shared on TikTok and the impact such content posed on society.
As soon as the official statement came out on Friday evening, some Pakistan users, a country that counts over 75 million Internet users, were already reporting that the TikTok app and website were inaccessible.
“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,” said Pakistan Telecommunication Authority in a statement.
Pakistan follows several countries that have banned TikTok recently. Its neighbor, India. once TikTok’s largest market outside of China with over 200 million monthly active users, banned TikTok and 59 other apps developed by Chinese firms over cybersecurity concerns.
In the U.S., the future of TikTok remains uncertain after no real solutions have been approved by the White House.