Pakistan blocks TikTok again after court order

Pakistan’s telecom regulator blocked popular video-sharing social networking website Tiktok in the aftermath of a court order.

The development comes after the Peshawar High Court (PHC) ordered the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to block the Chinese app.

“In respectful compliance to the orders of the Peshawar High Court, PTA has issued directions to the service providers to immediately block access to the TikTok App,” the PTA had said.

In respectful compliance to the orders of the Peshawar High Court, PTA has issued directions to the service providers to immediately block access to the TikTok App. During the hearing of a case today, the PHC has ordered for the blocking of App.

— PTA (@PTAofficialpk) March 11, 2021

The orders were issued by PHC Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan, who was hearing a petition filed by a citizen seeking a ban on Tiktok.

During the hearing, the PHC CJ observed that videos uploaded on TikTok are “not acceptable for the Pakistani society”.

He added that the people that were mostly affected by TikTok were the youth.

After the PHC had ordered to ban the app, TikTok, in a statement, said that it uses a combination of technologies and moderation strategies to detect and review content that violates its terms of service and community guidelines.

“We implement penalties including removing videos and banning accounts when there are violations. Our H2 2020 Transparency Report shows that we aggressively and proactively take down inappropriate content in Pakistan,” it said.