ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday again lifted a ban on TikTok, this time after four months, following assu­rances from the popular Chi­nese video-sharing service that it would control the spread of indecent content.

It was the fourth time in the past 15 months that the Pakistan Telecommuni­ca­tion Authority (PTA) impo­sed and lifted such a ban.

Pakistan first blocked TikTok in October 2020 over what it described as widespread complaints about allegedly immoral, obscene and vulgar content on the app.

The regulatory agency said in a statement on Twitter that TikTok had assured Pakistan it would also block users who upload unlawful content. The app, owned by China’s ByteDance, has been downloaded almost 39 million times in Pakistan.

Pakistan has been urging TikTok to develop an effective mechanism to control unlawful content.

Over the years, Pakistan has also forwarded hundreds of complaints to Facebook and Twitter about content, alleging it is offensive and potentially insulting to Islam, which goes against Pakistani law.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2021