Pakistan banned on Friday Chinese video-sharing App TikTok for promoting immoral, objectionable content.
The app has been banned for failing to filter out immoral content, three top government officials told Reuters. The government has been asking TikTok repeatedly to put in place an effective mechanism for blocking immoral and indecent content.
Since the video-sharing app has not been able to fully satisfy Pakistani authorities, it has been banned.
In a statement, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said that in view of the number of complaints from different segments of the society against immoral/indecent content on TikTok, it has issued instructions for blocking it.
PTA said it is open for engagement with TikTok and will review its decision subject to a satisfactory mechanism by TikTok to moderate unlawful content.
In July, while banning Bigo, the PTA had issued a final warning TikTok to remove 'obscene and immoral content' on its platform.
According to analytics firm Sensor Tower, TikTok app has been downloaded almost 39 million times in Pakistan and is the third-most downloaded app over the past year after WhatsApp and Facebook.
However, the app which is hugely popular among young Pakistanis, with some users building up millions of followers has been a target of several complaints calling for its ban in Pakistan.