Pakistan’s national telecommunications watchdog said on Wednesday that the TikTok app was suspended for the third time in less than a year, citing immoral and obscene content on the platform.
The Chinese company’s video-sharing platform has not complied with a previous order to filter out “immoral and obscene” content, nor has it deleted inappropriate content, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) said in a statement.
As the administration reminded, TikTok warned that such content should be filtered, but the company did not follow these instructions.
Pakistan banned TikTok for the first time a year ago in execution of a court ruling following public complaints about in-app vulgarities.
The ban was later lifted, according to media reports, following diplomatic intervention by the Chinese government and promises by the platform to filter the content.
For the same reason, Pakistan has banned the live streaming platform Bigo Live and warned the video-sharing site YouTube that it must block viewers in Pakistan from blocking “vulgarity and hate speech.”
The dating app “Tinder” is also blocked.
Critics say some of these bans and restrictions are being implemented to stifle criticism of the country’s armed forces leaders on the web.
YouTube introduced a localized version in Pakistan following a multi-month ban in 2012 in response to protests against a film insulting many Muslims about the Prophet Muhammad.-
Censorship in Pakistan has intensified since Prime Minister Imran Hana took office in 2018. Hana’s election was overshadowed by accusations of military intervention.
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