TikTok said on Tuesday that it had been “considering the implications” of the Sindh supreme court orders banning the app in Pakistan.
“We first became conscious of the court case and therefore the Sindh High Court’s judgement yesterday [Monday], and are currently considering its implications,” a spokesperson of TikTok told Geo.
The official repeated that the Chinese app has “robust policies, processes and technologies” to review and launch action against “violative content”.
SHC orders suspension of TikTok in Pakistan
SHC on Monday ordered the suspension of video-sharing app TikTok across Pakistan till July 8, nearly three months after the country had lifted a ban imposed thereon.
The SHC’s ruling came during a hearing, where the court issued a notice to the attorney general of Pakistan and directed him to follow the orders and obtain the app suspended.
Presenting his arguments within the court, the petitioner’s lawyer said Peshawar supreme court had earlier banned TikTok as some videos uploaded on the platform are “immoral and against the teachings of Islam.”
The lawyer said his client had approached the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) before moving the court, however, the PTA didn’t do anything during this regard.
The court has summoned the parties involved in the case on July 8.
Application filed in SC seeks ban on TikTok
The same day, an application was filed within the Supreme Court seeking a ban on TikTok.
Ali Zeb, a resident of Pakpattan, said that TikTok was promoting crime, with people using drugs and weapons and uploading videos, while the utilization of TikTok in educational institutions was resulting in a “bad environment” for the scholars.
The petitioner said individuals are likewise making recordings of endeavors like an effort of suicide to urge views on TikTok, while the content thereon was against the Islamic laws of Pakistan.
The petitioner requested that effective policy-making be administered by partially shutting down TikTok and ordering the govt to line up a mechanism to censor the content.
Ban lifted for the second time
Back in April, Pakistan, for the second time, had officially lifted a ban on China-based ByteDance’s app TikTok consequent to an area high court’s order.
This was done almost a month after an equivalent judicature had directed the state-run telecommunication authority to “immediately block access” to the short-form video-sharing service.
However, the PTA had also issued a stern warning to TikTok against “vulgar and objectionable content”, which it had been told to get rid of.
The “PTA has issued directions to the service providers to unblock access to the TikTok App”, the authority said during a handout shared on Twitter.
“However, the TikTok App management has been told to make sure that vulgar and objectionable content are to be made inaccessible in accordance with the PECA provisions and directions of the Honorable Court,” it warned.
TikTok appoints focal person to specialise in ‘immoral content’
The court in Peshawar was told during the hearing on April 1 that TikTok had appointed a focal person to specialize in “immoral content” and what action should be taken therein regard.
PHC judge Qaiser Rashid Khan had told the PTA’s director-general that the body should have a system that would differentiate between “good and bad”.
“When PTA takes action [against immoral content], people won’t upload such videos,” Justice Qaiser had said, to which the latter said the authority had spoken to TikTok to dam repeat offenders.
The PHC had then ordered the PTA to “open TikTok but immoral content shouldn’t be uploaded”, asking the officers to present an in-depth report on the matter during a subsequent hearing scheduled for May 25.
