Peshawar High court directs PTA to provide report on Tiktok ban

The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday ordered the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to provide a progress report on Tiktok ban. It asked about all the efforts taken to restrict ‘unlawful’ content on TikTok, a popular mobile video app, including immoral material.

According to PTA’s analysis, the app has been used to remove 28.9 million videos, with 1.4 million accounts being blocked for posting immoral content.

The written ruling further claimed that “immoral content uploaded on TikTok inspires the young generation,” and that persons who distribute such content are prosecuted but not punished, allowing them to continue distributing it.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) director-general was also questioned by the PCH CJ about whether the TikTok ban would have an impact on the individuals who use the app, to which the DG said, “Yes, it would.”

The court was hearing a petition filed jointly by 40 Peshawar residents who sought orders for the respondents, including the PTA and the Federal Investigation Agency, to ban TikTok to the extent that it violated constitutional provisions prohibiting acts contrary to the country’s Islamic code of life.

It ordered the PTA to give data on the matter’s development and set May 31 as the date for the next hearing on the petition.

The PTA said it had issued instructions to TikTok management under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, and the Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards Rules, 2020, to take concrete steps to remove unlawful content from the app, according to a report submitted to the court earlier. It had also stated that if TikTok’s management did not follow the directions, the app will be blocked in the country by an order in July.