Tiktok’s failure to implement orders to filter immoral content prompted Pakistan’s telecommunications regulator to ban the video-sharing platform on Friday, October 9, 2020.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said in a statement that the Chinese app was being blocked after complaints of vulgarity from different segments of society.
The authority said it had warned TikTok to filter immoral content, but the application had failed to abide by the instructions.
The move comes months after live-streaming app Bigo Live was banned for the same reason and video-sharing platform YouTube was warned to block vulgarity and hate speech.
Dating app Tinder has also been blocked in recent months by authorities in the conservative Islamic Republic.
These moves were seen by activists as an attempt to muzzle online criticism of the country’s powerful military.
YouTube introduced a localised version in Pakistan after a ban that lasted for several months in 2012 following protests against a movie deemed insulting to the Muslim prophet Muhammad.
Censorship levels have increased since the government of Prime Minister, Imran Khan took office after elections in 2018 tainted by the allegations of army interference.
Source: Reuters
