A HIGH court in Pakistan on Monday (28) ordered the temporary suspension of popular Chinese video-sharing app TikTok for “spreading immorality”.
Sindh High Court ordered the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to suspend the app until the next hearing scheduled for July 8.
The order was issued by the court on a petition by a citizen who alleged that TikTok was spreading "immorality and obscenity in the country".
It is the second time the app has been banned in the country this year. In March, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) had taken a similar action on a petition filed by several citizens.
However, the PHC, after a few weeks, lifted the ban by asking the telecom authority to take measures so that no "immoral content" was uploaded.
In October last year, the telecom authority for the first time banned TikTok after receiving complaints about “indecent and immoral” content, but lifted the ban after 10 days.
The Chinese app had assured the PTA it would operate as per the local laws to ensure that no “indecent content” was uploaded.
The app, owned by China's ByteDance, has been downloaded almost 39 million times in Pakistan.
David Lammy
Seema Malhotra
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