TikTok ban overturned, services restored in Pakistan

KARACHI: Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok has reportedly been restored in Pakistan, as emerged on Monday.

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) had banned TikTok on October 9 for not filtering "immoral and indecent" content.

The telecoms regulator had said the decision to ban the app was made after the authority received a series of "complaints from different segments of society against immoral and indecent content on the video-sharing app."

According to sources, the company has assured the authorities that it will take measures to control "indecent and immoral" in the application.

The commitment was made in a meeting with PTA officials, after which the regulator unseated the application.

TikTok had on Saturday expressed disappointment that its users and creators in Pakistan were still unable to access the video-sharing platform despite the company's efforts to interact with the country's telecommunications regulator.

According to a TikTok spokesperson, the video-sharing app continued to engage with the PTA to demonstrate its commitment to complying with local laws and further enhance its content moderation ability.

The spokesperson had said that TikTok had made "concerted efforts to address questions from the Pakistani government about its content moderation process."

“TikTok's mission is to inspire creativity and joy, and that is precisely what we have done in Pakistan. We have built a community whose creativity and passion have brought joy to the homes of Pakistan and opened vital economic opportunities for incredibly talented creators, ”he said.

"We continue to hope that our productive dialogue with the PTA can provide assurance of the government's commitment to a stable and enabling environment in which we can explore further investment in the marketplace, including in the inspiring talent that we have seen thrive on TikTok.