Pakistan has banned popular short video app TikTok, citing circulation of videos that it deemed “immoral and indecent.”
The move comes months after the South Asian country raised serious concerns about the character of some videos on ByteDance’s app and therefore the impact they posed on society.
PTA has banned TikTok in Pakistan
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, the country’s telecommunication authority, said during a statement Friday evening that despite the warnings and months-long time, TikTok “failed to suits the instructions, therefore, directions were issued for blocking of TikTok application within the country.” The authority had received a “number of complaints from different segments of the society” over the videos, it said.
Some individuals in Pakistan, a nation with about 75 million internet users, told TrendyTarzen that the TikTok app and its website were already inaccessible to them.
“TikTok has been informed that the authority is open for engagement and can review its decision subject to a satisfactory mechanism by TikTok to moderate unlawful content,” said Pakistan Telecommunication
The move from Pakistan comes months after its neighbouring nation, India, banned TikTok, Bigo and 57 other apps developed by Chinese firms over cybersecurity concerns.
Before the ban, TikTok identified India — where it had amassed over 200 million monthly active users — as its biggest market outside of China.
Like in India, TikTok is immensely popular in Pakistan, said Danish Khalid, an executive at Bykea, a Karachi-headquartered ride-hailing startup.
And then there’s the U.S., the most important market by revenue for TikTok, where the app’s future remains uncertain.
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