PTA Decides to Lift Ban on TikTok: Official

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is allowing the access of TikTok for its over 43 million users in Pakistan, we have confirmed with sources.

According to details shared with ProPakistani, PTA decided to unban the video sharing platform — hugely popular among the youth — after the company assured the authorities of strict compliance with Pakistani laws.

TikTok has assured PTA that they will block all accounts repeatedly involved in spreading obscenity and immorality. “We will moderate the account in accordance with local laws”, a TikTok statement was quoted as saying.

PTA had banned TikTok for spreading immoral and indecent content in Pakistan, and had said that company was warned at least twice to moderate the content on the platform.

TikTok, that took the warning lightly, was ultimately blocked for not taking measures.

After the ban, however, TikTok is said to have ramped up the moderation efforts and deployed dedicated resources to moderate content that will be published in Pakistan.

We have made concerted efforts to address questions from the Government of Pakistan around their content moderation process, including significantly increasing the capacity of their local language content moderation team.

After such guarantees, PTA has now decided to unblock TikTok in the country with a condition that no explicit content should go on-air on the platform.