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Pakistan bans TikTok over complaints against 'immoral content'

Raj Kantak Oct 09, 2020

Islamabad [Pakistan], October 9 (ANI): Pakistan on Friday became the latest country to impose a ban on TikTok, a Chinese short video making app, after receiving a "number of complaints from different segments of the society", the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said in a press statement.
According to the press release on Friday, several complaints were made "against immoral/indecent content" that was shared on the app, Dawn reported.
The PTA said it had earlier issued a "final notice" to TikTok and gave the application "considerable time to respond and comply with" instructions for the development of an effective mechanism for proactive moderation of "unlawful online content".
However, the company "failed to fully comply" with PTA's instructions, after which the authority decided to ban it in the country.
The ban by Pakistan comes at a time when there is an international outcry over the short video-making app for comprising the nations' security at the behest of China.
The statement added that PTA "is open for engagement" and would review its decision if TikTok develops a mechanism to moderate the content that is posted on the video-sharing platform.
The video-sharing app, which is owned by China's ByteDance, has been downloaded almost 39 million times in Pakistan and is the third-most downloaded app over the past year after WhatsApp and Facebook, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower.
Recently, a civil miscellaneous application was filed in the Lahore High Court demanding an immediate ban on a famous mobile phone video application, TikTok.
Advocate Nadeem Sarwar moved the application on behalf of a citizen who is a petitioner in the main petition pending with the court, The Dawn reported.
The lawyer contended that hearing of the main petition against the TikTok had not been fixed so far and the matter was of great importance. He said more than 10 deaths had been reported in the country in incidents relating to the users of the application. (ANI)