Peshawar HC bans TikTok over ‘indecent’ content

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) ordered the authorities concerned for imposing a ban on the popular short video sharing app TikTok with effect from Thursday.

Heading a PHC bench, Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan said: “Videos being uploaded on TikTok are unacceptable to our society.” TikTok videos were peddling vulgarity in society, he said and ordered that this app should be blocked immediately.

The decision was made in a petition seeking directives for the government to block unethical and immoral content on the app. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) director general (DG) told the court that the authority approached the TikTok management to have objectionable and indecent content removed but to no avail.

The PTA DG said about 4.5 million videos were being uploaded on the app in the country alone on daily basis, adding it was impossible to filter all the videos since they happen to be in different languages.

At this, the court instructed that the app should remain blocked until TikTok officials cooperate with the PTA.