Pakistan's Telecommunication Authority (PTA) lifted TikTok's ban in the country ten days after claiming its failure to remove 'immoral' contents.
As The Verge reported, TikTok's videos will now be moderated according to social norms and applicable laws in Pakistan. PTA released a press release statement on Tuesday (10/20), saying that the authority has restored TikTok services with 'certain conditions.'
The company's spokesperson told The Verge that they're thrilled to see its restore in Pakistan to continue enabling Pakistani voices and creativity in a safe environment.
The video-sharing platform has been downloaded over 43 million times in the South Asian country, making it the 12th largest market. According to Sensor Tower, 6.4 million videos from Pakistan were pulled from the platform to violate content standards.
The government implied a formal request to remove over 40 accounts on the platform since the first half of 2020. However, the Chinese company had not been fully responsive and only banned two of them.
"Number of complaints had been received from different society segments against immoral, obscene & vulgar content on social media," PTA said in a tweet. The authority issued a final warning against TikTok last July.
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Not The First Time
In fact, TikTok was not the only mobile app to face ban in Pakistan. Back in September, dating apps like Tinder and Grindr are blocked from the country. Other dating apps, like SayHi, Tagged, and Skout, are also banned in the conservative country.
While dating apps are most popular in the United States and Western counties, it has slowly spread to the third world, conventional Islamic countries such as Pakistan.
According to CNN, Tinder had seen at least 440.000 downloads over the last 12 months when the ban was announced. Grindr, mostly known as a networking tool for the LGBTQ+ community, scored an impressive 300.000 downloads in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, In India & United States
Meanwhile, TikTok is still banned in India, Pakistan's neighboring country, as CNN reported.
As tensions with China escalated back in June 2020, the Indian authority removed TikTok from all the platforms. TikTok is one of the few made-in-China apps banned from the country following the brutal border clash, killing 20 Indian soldiers.
When a user tries to access TikTok after the ban, an error message saying that the app is 'complying with the Government of India's directive' will pop up.
The United States' President Donald Trump had ordered to ban TikTok and WeChat to repress the Chinese Communist Party & disinformation campaigns.
However, the judge blocked the order to remove TikTok from app stores in the US. As The Guardian reported, Trump's administration is yet to appeal the injunction.
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