After banning the famous short video creating app,TikTok, for the past 10 days, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Monday said that TikTok is being unlocked, after TikTok management made assurances to “block all accounts repeatedly involved in spreading obscenity and immorality”.
PTA spokesperson said the TikTok management has assured the authority that it will block all accounts repeatedly involved in spreading obscenity and immorality and moderate content in accordance with local laws. The authority has not announced whether the app will be unblocked immediately.
TikTok Management came to the forefront and released the statement:
“It’s unfortunate that Pakistan’s vibrant online community is still unable to showcase their talent and creativity to our hundreds of millions of users worldwide. We look forward to being able to reconnect with the energetic and talented youth of Pakistan and play our role in the success story of Pakistan,” the statement concluded.
They also tweeted: “TikTok will moderate the account in accordance with local laws,” tweeted the authority.
“TikTok’s mission is to inspire creativity and joy, and that’s just what we’ve done in Pakistan.
We’ve built a community whose creativity and passion has brought joy to households across Pakistan and opened vital economic opportunities to incredibly talented creators,” ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, said in a statement.
“After TikTok was blocked in Pakistan, we continued to engage with the PTA to demonstrate our commitment to comply with local laws and further enhance our content moderation capacity,” ByteDance further said.
“If the government of Pakistan decides to reopen access to our services in the future, we can assess our allocation of resources to this market,” the company said.
Court also summoned PTA officials for not complying with the court’s earlier order, directing PTA to frame rules for exercising its powers under PECA 2016.
“The PTA violated two court decisions by banning Tik Tok,” Advocate Usama Khawar, counsel for the petitioner said.
According to some estimates, the app has been installed 43 million times in Pakistan, becoming the one of the most downloaded apps in the country.
