Pakistan court orders Telecom authority to block TikTok in the country - Android

A high court in the northwestern city of Peshawar has asked the PTA to block TikTok in the country. Here's a look at why this has happened.

The post Pakistan court orders Telecom authority to block TikTok in the country appeared first on BGR India.

The Peshawar high court has ordered the Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) to block access to the popular short video making app TikTok in the country after a private complainant claimed that the social media app has been spreading indecent content.

A TikTok representative in Pakistan told Reuters that the company is aware of the situation and will issue further comments in due course.

PTA spokesman Khurram Mehran has told Reuters that the authority is going to comply with the order.

As of now, TikTok has not been removed from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store in Pakistan and the app is accessible in the country. These kinds of orders do take some time to come into effect, considering that a lot of variable factors are involved in such orders.

This has happened before

To recall, the telecom regulator in Pakistan had implemented a ban on the app back in October due to it spreading “obscenity and immorality.” However, the ban was lifted within 10 days when the ByteDance-owned social media app agreed to moderate accounts in accordance with local laws, thus helping in cutting down obscene and immoral videos.

TikTok has been one of the most downloaded apps in the country, followed closely by WhatsApp and Facebook.

What happened in India?

TikTok following a temporary ban back in June was issued a notice for a permanent ban along with 177 other Chinese apps under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. The government stated that the ban was enacted due to the app “engaging in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order.”

Since then TikTok has denied the fact that its ties to China pose a security concern as it does not share its user data. However, the ban remains in place.