Peshawar – Pakistan: TikTok, a popular video-sharing app, has blocked around eight million objectionable videos and around 400,000 accounts for uploading those videos in the country, the Peshawar High Court was told on Tuesday.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had increased the number of moderators from 116 to 476 in the country to monitor the objectionable and indecent material uploaded on TikTok. The PTA director (technical) said ‘moderators’ had been supervising TikTok content. He said it was technically impossible to filter a video before it was uploaded and that even other countries didn’t have that technology.
The petition objective was the app is spreading vulgarity among the youth
It was hearing a petition jointly filed by 40 residents of Peshawar, who sought orders for the respondents, including PTA and Federal Investigation Agency, to ban TikTok to the extent of violation of the constitutional provisions, which don’t allow acts contrary to Islamic code of life.
The bench observed that the court didn’t want to ban the TikTok service in the country and instead, it was only interested in the introduction of a mechanism to stop the uploading of indecent material on it. The DG said the TikTok management had been formally requested to block all accounts, which had repeatedly been sharing objectionable contents.
In March, the court had banned TikTok service in the country leading to the blocking of the people’s access to the video-sharing app. The ban was lifted on April 1 with the court asking the PTA to ensure that no immoral and obscene contents are uploaded on it.
The chief justice observed that the court would appreciate if TikTok was used purely for entertainment purpose but it won’t allow indecent and un-Islamic videos to be available on it in the country. The petitioners said the contents shared on the app violated constitutional provisions guaranteeing social and moral wellbeing of citizens.
The respondents in the petition were the federation of Pakistan through the interior secretary, ministries of law and justice and information, PTA chairman, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority through its chairman, and FIA’s Cybercrime Wing.
