After the Sindh Provincial Court of Pakistan lifted the ban on TikTok, the short video application has now resumed operations in Pakistan. The app went live today but the court ordered it to deal with complaints about its carrying of bad content. The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) blocked TikTok’s access for the third time on Thursday. PTA took this action after hearing a private citizen petition against TikTok in the Sindh court. TikTok’s ban has been criticized by the video-sharing platform’s huge fan base in Pakistan, many of whom use it to promote and sell products online.
This is the third time that TikTok will have to come out of a ban in Pakistan for “indecent” videos. The most recent one is in March and since then, the app has been brutal with its reviews in the country. TikTok said on Wednesday that in the past three months alone, it has removed more than 6 million videos from its Pakistan service. Of this number, about 15% are indecent videos.
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However, even senior Pakistani officials are puzzled by this back and forth situation. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said on Twitter: “I am confused after reading the sentence on the suspension of TikTok”.
Pakistani TikTok users can not post indecent content
There has been continuous contact between the platform’s senior management and the government before and after the implementation of the ban. TikTok now guarantees to monitor content in accordance with social norms and Pakistani laws. The company also promises to ensure that it continues to ban users who upload illegal content. For users who choose to upload illegal content, you may have only one chance to do so. TikTok will use the most extreme punishment that it has for users. You post one wrong content and you may get a permanent ban as punishment. Of course, the total blockade from the app is the most extreme punishment that TikTok can give.
With all the assurances from the app, PTA, as a facilitator of users’ healthy digital experience on the Internet and the development of digital companies, decided to lift the ban.
However, the prerequisite for the restoration of TikTok services is to strictly abide by the rule. It simply states that the platform should not be an avenue for users to spread indecent content. Furthermore, if TikTok does not meet the conditions, PTA will have to permanently block the application. If this happens, there will be no way back for the Chinese app. This is about the third time that TikTok will have to come out from a ban in Pakistan.
