ISLAMABAD: Amid concerns in Pakistan and some other Asian countries over lack of content regulations at its platform, TikTok has established a regional Safety Advisory Council to advise its management on content moderation policies and safety issues specific to Asia Pacific.

One of the leading short video platforms, TikTok has introduced its Asia Pacific (APAC) Safety Advisory Council which consists of experts in the field of legal and regulatory bodies and academics from across the region to advise TikTok for policies on content moderation.

Jehan Ara, President of the Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT, is one of the seven members of the council.

The council, TikTok announced, would help the company develop forward-looking policies not only to address challenges of current times, but also suggest steps for tackling issues the organisation is likely to face in future.

“TikTok is taking a positive step forward in improving its policies and processes with the establishment of the APAC Safety Advisory Council,” Arjun Narayan, TikTok Director of Trust and Safety, Asia Pacific, said in a statement. “The Council will provide advice as TikTok continues to strengthen its content policies in the Asia Pacific and we look forward to expanding our council in future, with representatives from other markets in the region,” Mr Narayan said.

The founding members of TikTok’s APAC Safety Advisory Council are: Ms Jehan Ara of Pakistan, Amitabh Kumar of India, Nguyen Phuong Linh of Vietnam, Dr Yuhyun Park of Singapore, Prof Akira Sakamoto of Japan, Prof Seungwoo Son of South Korea and Anita Wahid of Indonesia.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2020