On Friday, 9th October 2020, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) banned TikTok after considering a great number of complaints regarding content of short video app. According to those complaints which were reported by different classes of society that this application of TikTok was sharing and promoting immoral and indecent content among its users.
PTA in a press release stated that by considering complaints about offensive content on TikTok, they have issued a notice which had instructions for the development of an appropriate mechanism which could eliminate such content from this app.
Due to any circumstances TikTok fails to abide the instructions by PTA which causes the reason for authorities to ban TikTok form the country.
This ban on the TikTok was not sudden as this app has been subjected to many complaints and court petitions earlier which led its cause of ban in Pakistan for promoting and presenting “immoral” content. PTA said in July that they had issued a "final warning" to TikTok for the exclusion of “obscene and immoral content” from its platform.
Government officials states that TikTok does not understand the severity of the situation, that parents of the teenagers are very concerned for them as teens are very much attracted to this app which cause bad influence on them. Young female TikTokers are being objectified and exploited under this platform that certainly cannot be overlooked.
After all this PTA said to TikTok that they had informed the officials of this social network that the decision regarding the ban could be uplifted if they develop a comprehensive mechanism to regulate vulgar and immoral content from this app.
It's important to remember that Pakistan is not the only country to ban the China based app, India has already restricted the access of TikTok along with several other apps for security reason. However, blocking a social media app can have a drastic impact on creators economy. Influencers who invest a lot of their time and energy in creating quality content to make a living out of it suffer the most because of such governmental imposed restrictions around the globe. Let's hope TikTok and policy makers around the world will find a middle way of eliminating inappropriate and objectionable content instead of censoring a whole app.
Read next: TikTok Attempts to Address Creator Concerns With Internal Survey
PTA in a press release stated that by considering complaints about offensive content on TikTok, they have issued a notice which had instructions for the development of an appropriate mechanism which could eliminate such content from this app.
Due to any circumstances TikTok fails to abide the instructions by PTA which causes the reason for authorities to ban TikTok form the country.
This ban on the TikTok was not sudden as this app has been subjected to many complaints and court petitions earlier which led its cause of ban in Pakistan for promoting and presenting “immoral” content. PTA said in July that they had issued a "final warning" to TikTok for the exclusion of “obscene and immoral content” from its platform.
Government officials states that TikTok does not understand the severity of the situation, that parents of the teenagers are very concerned for them as teens are very much attracted to this app which cause bad influence on them. Young female TikTokers are being objectified and exploited under this platform that certainly cannot be overlooked.
After all this PTA said to TikTok that they had informed the officials of this social network that the decision regarding the ban could be uplifted if they develop a comprehensive mechanism to regulate vulgar and immoral content from this app.
In view of number of complaints from different segments of the society against immoral/indecent content on the video sharing application TikTok, pic.twitter.com/Vmp5umixeL
— PTA (@PTAofficialpk) October 9, 2020
It's important to remember that Pakistan is not the only country to ban the China based app, India has already restricted the access of TikTok along with several other apps for security reason. However, blocking a social media app can have a drastic impact on creators economy. Influencers who invest a lot of their time and energy in creating quality content to make a living out of it suffer the most because of such governmental imposed restrictions around the globe. Let's hope TikTok and policy makers around the world will find a middle way of eliminating inappropriate and objectionable content instead of censoring a whole app.
Read next: TikTok Attempts to Address Creator Concerns With Internal Survey
