Sindh High Court lifts ban on TikTok

By News Desk

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday withdrew its ban on popular social media app TikTok and ordered the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to restore it.

On June 28, authorities blocked the app again after the SHC ruling on a private citizen’s petition that accused the company of promoting obscenity.

Chinese-owned TikTok has been shut down twice before in Pakistan because of alleged indecent content — most recently in March, after which the company pledged to better moderate content.

More than six million videos were removed from TikTok in Pakistan in three months, the app said on June 30. “In the Pakistani market, TikTok removed 6,495,992 videos making it the second market to get the most videos removed after the USA, where 8,540,088 videos were removed,” TikTok Pakistan’s latest transparency report said, covering January to March.

The PTA implemented the first court order on June 30 but on Friday it requested the court to withdraw its earlier order. The PTA counsel assured the court that it would expedite the process on the petitioner’s request and issue a ruling on it by July 5. The court then adjourned the hearing until July 5. Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry expressed jubilation over the lifting of the ban. He tweeted that a “technology war” was being fought in the world right now as companies were propagating against each other. “The regulatory bodies and judiciary should stay away from such fights and the investors in Pakistan should be welcomed,” he added.

Earlier, he had criticised the ban, saying “judicial activism” had cost the country “billions of dollars” in investment.