Islamabad: A Pakistani court has ordered a ban on the TikTok social media platform over alleged “obscene content”, the second time the app has been banned in the South Asian country in less than six months.
The Peshawar High Court’s Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan made the ruling during a hearing into a petition against the platform on Thursday.
Khan described some videos uploaded on the popular platform as being “unacceptable for Pakistani society”, and ordered the country’s internet regulator to ban the service until it put in place content controls deemed acceptable by the court.
TikTok challenged the ruling saying it has guidelines to monitor content.
“TikTok is built upon the foundation of creative expression, with strong safeguards in place to keep inappropriate content off the platform,” the company said in a statement.
“In Pakistan we have grown our local-language moderation team, and have mechanisms to report and remove content in violation of our community guidelines. We look forward to continuing to serve the millions of TikTok users and creators in Pakistan who have found a home for creativity and fun.”
