ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Friday blocked the video sharing application, TikTok, in Pakistan after receiving number of complaints from various segments of the society against immoral/indecent content.

PTA spokesperson, Khurram Mehran, told Business Recorder that two warnings were earlier issued to the Tik Tok management, and pointed out the illegal content, but the later failed to comply with and not remove the objectionable material.

However, the authority was open, if they (Tik Tok) wanted to negotiate, he added. The PTA issued a brief statement, saying that in view of a number of complaints from various segments of society against immoral/indecent content on the video-sharing application TikTok, the PTA has issued instructions for blocking of the application.

Keeping in view the complaints and nature of the content being consistently posted on TikTok, the PTA issued a final notice to the application and gave considerable time to respond and comply with the authority's instructions for development of effective mechanism for proactive moderation of unlawful online content.

However, the application failed to fully comply with the instructions; therefore, directions were issued for blocking of TikTok application in the country. TikTok has been informed that the authority is open for engagement, and will review its decision subject to a satisfactory mechanism by TikTok to moderate unlawful content.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020