Tag: TikTok ban in Pakistan

  • Shahid Afridi wants a ban on TikTok, appeals to Shehzad Roy to raise voice

    Shahid Afridi wants a ban on TikTok, appeals to Shehzad Roy to raise voice

    Former Pakistani cricket team captain Shahid Afridi was invited on Ahsan Khan’s talk show, Time Out with Ahsan khan along with singer Shehzad Roy. The sports star appealed the Mukhra singer that he should get TikTok banned for the betterment of the society.

    Shahid highlighted that the app is being misused by civilians and can be accessed in regions of the country where the literacy rate is insufficient for the users to understand the importance of using the app correctly.

    “You raise voice for everything, get TikTok banned as well,” Afridi asked the Ya Rabb singer.

    In response to Afridi’s demand, Shehzad Roy asked why he wants the app to be banned.

    “In most of our remote areas, WiFi reached before education,” the cricketer answered.

    He added that there have been multiple incidents due to TikTok. The all-rounder also expressed his displeasure over the usage of mobile phone by kids and mentioned that his daughter got a phone after turning nineteen.

  • PM Khan shares this video but TikTok is banned in Pakistan

    PM Khan shares this video but TikTok is banned in Pakistan

    Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan at the conclusion of the Olympic Games on Sunday, shared a message for his followers on social media, featuring a Tiktok video that conveys the importance of not giving up.

    Read More – PM Imran Khan wants Tiktok to be banned

    “I want the youth of Pakistan to watch the race and learn the most important lesson that sports taught me: you only lose when you give up,” wrote the premier.

    The 62-second clip shared by PM Imran Khan shows an athlete falling down on his face during a sprint before getting back on his feet again and finishing ahead of everyone else.

    It is the fourth time that the wildly popular video sharing app has been blocked in Pakistan and the third time this year. Free speech advocates are critical of growing censorship since PM Imran Khan took office in 2018.

    The app has been caught up in a series of legal battles with religious activists and authorities. Prior to this shutdown, the app was barred for two days in early July on the order of a provincial court.

    Read More – Justice Athar Minallah expresses anger over TikTok ban, asks PTA for justification

    Despite being hugely popular and useful to many who market and sell goods online in Pakistan, TikTok has many critics in the country who claim the app promotes vulgarity.

    In June, the company announced it had removed more than siz million videos in just the previous three months alone as a result of complaints from officials and citizens alike. Of those six million videos, 15% were pulled because of “adult nudity and sexual activities.”

    The first time that Pakistan moved to block TikTok in 2020, the ban was lifted after diplomatic pressure from China and assurances from Byte Dance, the parent company, with regards to content moderation.

  • Justice Athar Minallah expresses anger over TikTok ban, asks PTA for justification

    Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Athar Minallah expressed anger over the fourth ban on video-sharing app TikTok by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and has asked the authority for justification regarding the ban.

    Chief Justice IHC was hearing a citizen’s petition against ban. During the hearing, CJ IHC remarked: “Why has TikTok been banned? If banning TikTok is the only solution, then Google should also be banned.”

    The PTA lawyer said that the ban was imposed under PECA in light of the orders of the Sindh and Peshawar High Courts. Chief Justice IHC Athar Minallah directed the PTA counsel to read out both the judgements and remarked that neither of the courts had asked for a complete closure of TikTok, but had rather asked to create a mechanism.

    TikTok was banned for the fourth time in Pakistan on July 21, 2021 for its failure to take down “inappropriate content”. Days before the ban, President Arif Alvi had joined TikTok to “spread the message of positivity & motivation for the youth of Pakistan“.

    For this first time, Pakistan blocked the video-sharing app on October 9, 2020. However, the ban was lifted after the TikTok management assured the Pakistani authorities that it will block all accounts repeatedly involved in spreading obscenity and immorality

  • TikTok is being sued for misusing data of millions of children

    TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDan could face a damages claim worth billions of pounds (dollars) in London’s High Court over allegations that they have illegally harvested the private data of millions of European children, Reuters has reported.

    That case will be heard next week and affected children could receive thousands of pounds each if the claim is successful.

    “TikTok is a hugely popular social media platform that has helped children keep in touch with their friends during an incredibly difficult year. However, behind the fun songs, dance challenges and lip-sync trends lies something far more sinister,” Anne Longfield, the former Children’s Commissioner for England told BBC.

    Longfield alleged that every child that has used TikTok since May 25, 2018, may have had private personal information illegally collected by ByteDance through TikTok for the benefit of unknown third parties.

    “Parents and children have a right to know that private information, including phone numbers, physical location, and videos of their children are being illegally collected,” she added.

    Read more- 10-year-old girl dies trying TikTok’s ‘blackout challenge’

    A TikTok representative said privacy and safety were the company’s top priorities and that it had robust policies, processes and technologies in place to help protect all users, especially teenage users.

    “We believe the claims lack merit and intend to vigorously defend the action,” the representative said.

    Earlier this year in March TikTok was banned in Pakistan due to immoral content, but the ban was later lifted.

    The popular video-sharing app was banned for the first time in October last year. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had blocked TikTok after the company “failed to fully comply” with its instructions for the “development of an effective mechanism for proactive moderation of unlawful online content”. Later, the ban was lifted when the TikTok management assured authorities that it will block all accounts repeatedly involved in spreading obscenity and immorality.

  • Hareem Shah accuses friend of attempting to assassinate her

    Hareem Shah has registered an FIR against her friend at the Golra Sharif Police Station in Islamabad for attempting to assassinate her.

    As per details, the FIR was registered against Hareem’s friend Ayesha, who was accompanied by Bahadur Sher Afridi. The FIR was lodged from Shah’s real name Fiza Hussain.

    According to the FIR, the assassination attempt was made on March 18 at Hareem’s flat.

    “I, resident of E-11 (III) Omni Arcade, came to Islamabad from Karachi for shooting on March 16 and two people Ayesha Naz and Bahadur Sher Afridi forcefully entered my flat on March 18 (Thursday) and started assaulting me as soon as they entered my residence,” stated the FIR.

    Further details on the FIR and arrests are unknown.

    Hareem, who rose to fame through her TikTok video, often makes headlines. In January 2021, a video of Hareem slapping Mufti Abdul Qavi went viral on social media.

    Speaking exclusively to The Current, Hareem had shared that she had gone to visit Mufti Qavi with her friend. During their meeting, the religious leader passed inappropriate comments and was rude to them prompting Shah to slap him. She said that she left his hotel room after slapping him.

    Meanwhile, Shah is all set to foray into the world of acting with a web series on Pakistan’s first Urdu OTT platform – UrduFlix. According to a press release, UrduFlix will be featuring the TikTok star in a never-seen-before avatar in a new Urdu web series.

  • PTA removes ban on TikTok after management assures monitoring

    PTA removes ban on TikTok after management assures monitoring

    The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has removed the ban on video-sharing application TikTok, after assurances from the platform’s management. According to details, TikTok has assured the regulatory body that they will block all accounts indulged in spreading ‘obscenity and immorality’.

    PTA, in a tweet, confirmed that TikTok will moderate all accounts in accordance with local laws.

    Earlier on October 9, PTA had blocked the social media application after receiving multiple complaints from “different segments of society against immoral/indecent content on the video-sharing application TikTok”.

    This came after a final warning to TikTok was issued in July over explicit content posted on the platform. PTA said TikTok was given “considerable time to respond and comply with” instructions for the development of an effective mechanism for proactive moderation of “unlawful online content” but TikTok “failed to fully comply” with the regulator’s instructions.

    TikTok is one of the most popular social media apps in Pakistan. According to some estimates, the app has been installed 43 million times in Pakistan, with 14.7 million of those coming in the year 2020 alone.

    Meanwhile, TikTok had issued a statement on Saturday which called for the lifting of the ban on the app.

    “If the Government of Pakistan decides to reopen access to our services in the future, we will certainly assess our allocation of resources to this market,” the Chinese social media giant had said in a statement.

  • Petitioner demands ban on Tiktok after ten deaths

    Petitioner demands ban on Tiktok after ten deaths

    An application has been filed in the Lahore High court demanding an immediate ban on the TikTok.

    Advocate Nadeem Sarwar moved the application on behalf of a citizen. According to the lawyer, the petitioner move to the High Court because over 10 deaths have been reported in Pakistan that were linked with TikTok in one or the other way.

    The lawyer also said that the app has become a portal of sharing inappropriate content just for the sake of fame and rating on the social media platform.

    He also argues that the video application is a “great-evil and the app has been banned in several countries like Malaysia and Bangladesh due to its nature of insulting and mocking people.”

    On the other hand, the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Punjab, Ashfaq Ahmad Khan also thinks that the app should be banned.

    “I request the cybercrime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency to look into the matters and immediately impose a ban on the video-sharing mobile application.” said the DIG.

    According to several news reports, the officials of Punjab Police are preparing a report that will highlight all negative aspects of TikTok and how it is negatively influencing the young adults of the country.

    The police will submit the reports to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).