PHC orders ban on TikTok mobile app

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday banned the social media application TikTok after complaints that it was spreading immorality. The order was issued by a bench headed by the PHC Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan.

During the hearing, the director-general Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) told the court they have approached the TikTok authorities after receiving complaints of the presence of immoral videos on the forum but had yet to get any positive response from the company.

Two women lawyers, Nazish Muzaffar and Sara Ali, had moved the court against the objectionable contents being uploaded on the app. Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan observed that the videos uploaded on TikTok were not acceptable to the Pakistani society. He said the application is mostly affecting the youth of the country.

The bench asked the PTA director-general if the ban on the Chinese-owned app will have an effect. He replied in the affirmative. “The app will remain banned till the company officials positively respond to the government on stopping immoral videos," the chief justice directed.

The ban was imposed immediately. Earlier, the application was banned in October last year after the receipt of similar complaints. However, the PTA unblocked the Chinese app the same month after the company assured it would censor the immoral videos and keep a check on objectionable content.

TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service serving as a platform to make short videos with a duration of 15 seconds to one minute. There are millions of people using TikTok in Pakistan and other countries across the world. Some of the videos, however, earned criticism as the people complained the app was spreading immorality in society. There were also reports of deaths in the last few years due to the videos being uploaded on the app.