After Six Month Hiatus, Chinese App TikTok Banned In Pakistan Again Over Profanity Claims

The Peshawar High Court acted on a petition that requested the video-sharing platform be blocked until it complies with instructions and guidelines given to it by the Pakistani media regulatory agency last year.

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In a fresh ban, Pakistan's media regulatory agency has once again blocked the Chinese video-sharing app TikTok after two lawyers approached a court in the northwest claiming the company was spreading vulgar content.

The popular app TikTok was earlier banned for a brief period following complaints about the alleged presence of immoral and indecent content, as per PTI. 

What are the current orders?

The latest order comes after a hiatus of six months since the last ban was imposed. According to the brief statement from the agency the app has been blocked in compliance with the orders of the Peshawar High Court. There are no further details.

The Peshawar High Court said it acted on a petition from lawyers Nazish Muzaffar and Sara Ali who requested the video-sharing platform be blocked until it complies with instructions and guidelines given to it by the Pakistani media regulatory agency last year.

Both Pakistan and China are seen as close allies, however, in October, Pakistan blocked the popular platform for 10 days.

The ban also evoked responses from Pakistan's TikTok celebrities, who criticised the government for banning the video-sharing app. The app owned by China's ByteDance is the third-most downloaded app over the past year after WhatsApp and Facebook, as per the news agency PTI. It has been downloaded almost 39 million times in Pakistan.

India went ahead to impose a permanent ban of the app following temporary app ban last year. Along with Tik Tok, the government gave the 59 apps a chance to explain their stand on compliance with privacy and security requirements.