PTA decides to lift temporary ban on TikTok in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (92 News) - The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Monday decided to lift a temporary ban on the popular short video-sharing Chinese app TikTok.

According to the PTA spokesperson, the decision was made following an assurance by the TikTok management to abide by Pakistan’s laws and block accounts uploading indecent and immoral content.

A notification regarding restoration of the app will be issued shortly, the spokesperson said. The authority has not announced whether the app will be unblocked immediately.

The authority had said at the time of the ban that the decision was made after it received complaints ‘against immoral/indecent content’ on the app.

The PTA said it had issued a final notice to the app and gave considerable time to respond and develop and an effective mechanism for ‘proactive moderation of unlawful online content.’

TikTok has failed to fully comply with the PTA’s instructions, a press release sent by the authority read. The PTA said it has informed TikTok that they are ‘open for engagement and will review its decision subject to a satisfactory mechanism by TikTok to moderate unlawful content’

It is pertinent to mention here that the PTA had on October 9 banned TikTok for failing to filter out "immoral and indecent" content.