The country’s Telecommunications Authority said Pakistan has banned the Chinese social networking app Tik Tok for not allowing “immoral and obscene” content to pass through.
The decision came after numerous complaints from various sectors of society, the Pakistani Telecommunications Authority (PTA) said in a statement Friday.
“Given the nature and content of the content regularly posted on Tik Tok, the PTA has issued a final notice of the request,” the statement said.
“However, the application did not fully comply with the instructions. Therefore, instructions were given to stop the use of tuk-tuk in the country.
The PTA reported that Tick Tick has been informed that the regulator is open to participation and will reconsider its decision.
In July, the regulator issued a “final warning” to a short video attachment of explicit content posted on the platform.
Tic-tac-toe, owned by the Chinese company Bite Dance, has hit a global firestorm due to security and privacy concerns. It is already blocked in India and is under scrutiny in countries from Australia to the United States.
Comments on this matter were not immediately available on Twitter.
The decision came after Prime Minister Imran Khan showed keen interest in the matter, a government official told Reuters, adding that Khan had instructed telecoms to visit the conservative country. Do your best to avoid content that I consider illegal.
The move comes just months after the Bugo Live app was banned and the video sharing platform YouTube was warned to stop “hate speech.”
In recent months, Pakistani authorities have blocked bidding on a dating app.
In 2016, the Pakistani parliament passed the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), including on the Internet.
This gave the OTA broad powers to block materials perceived as “contrary to the greatness or integrity of Islam, the security or defense of Pakistan” or “public order, decency or ethics.”
Rights groups say the PTA has blocked more than 800,000 websites and platforms from entering the country.
The list of blocked sites includes pornographic platforms, but also includes critical news about the country’s security and foreign policy, on some social networks, as well as some of the party’s political sites.
