TikTok banned in Pakistan by Peshawar High Court for 'immoral content'

• Peshawar High Court observes videos uploaded on TikTok are "not acceptable for Pakistani society”.
• PHC says TikTok will remain shut till company complies with PTA's request and cooperates with them on immoral content.
• This is the second time TikTok has been banned in Pakistan.

PESHAWAR:  Widely used video-sharing social networking service TikTok on Thursday faced another ban after the Peshawar High Court (PHC) directed Pakistani authorities to immediately ban the app over immoral content.

The directives were issued by PHC Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan, who was hearing a plea seeking a ban on Tiktok.

PHC Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan remarked that the videos uploaded on the   Chinese owned app were"not acceptable for Pakistani society”. He added that the audience mostly affected by TikTok were the youth.

The judge also expressed his displeasure over the “reports” he was receiving of TikTok.

“Tik​​tok videos are spreading obscenity, it [the app] should be shut down immediately,” ordered Chief Justice Qaisar Rashid Khan

The PCH CJ also questioned the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) director-general on whether shutting down TikTok would have an impact on the people running the app, to which the DG said "yes, it would".

The DG added that the government had approached the TikTok officials over the immoral content, but they were yet to receive a “positive” response from them.

As soon as the judge heard this, he observed that TikTok should be shut down till the company responds to the government on the “immoral” content being posted on the website.

“TikTok will be shut down till officials comply with your request and cooperate with you to stop immoral content on the app,” ordered the PHC CJ.

This is the second time that the the widely used App has been banned in Pakistan.

In October of last year, the PTA had blocked the Chinese-owned video-sharing app after the company "failed to fully comply" with its instructions for “development of an effective mechanism for proactive moderation of unlawful online content”.

At the time, the PTA had said that the step was taken after the authority said it received a number of complaints from different segments of society against "immoral and indecent" content on the video-sharing application.

However, the same month, the PTA overturned its decision after it was told by TikTok that the company would “block all accounts repeatedly involved in spreading obscenity and immorality”.