ISLAMABAD: Chinese social media app TikTok said on Thursday a transparency report released by the platform showed Pakistan was one of five markets in the world with the largest volume of videos removed due to breach of community guidelines and terms of service.
Last month, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority banned the Singaporean live-streaming app Bigo over “immoral, obscene and vulgar content” and issued a “final warning” to Tiktok for “similar” reasons.
“In the recent release of its Transparency Report, TikTok shared the global volume of videos removed for violating its Community Guidelines or Terms of Service, which showed that Pakistan is one of the five markets with the largest volume of removed videos,” the app said in a statement. “This demonstrates TikTok’s commitment to remove any potentially harmful or inappropriate content reported in Pakistan.”
TikTok said the app had grown increasingly popular in Pakistan, which comes with “the responsibility to keep users safe on the platform.”
“Addressing this, TikTok has released an updated publication of the Community Guidelines in Urdu that will help and maintain a supportive and welcoming environment on TikTok for users in Pakistan,” the statement said. “The Community Guidelines ... are localized and implemented in accordance with local laws and norms. TikTok’s teams remove content that violates the Community Guidelines, and suspends or bans accounts involved in severe or repeated violations.”
On July 1, PTA placed a temporary ban on the online game PUBG after receiving complaints that it was addictive and had a “serious negative impact on (the) physical and psychological health of the children” who play it. The game was finally unblocked on August 1 after what Pakistan called “positive” talks with PUBG representatives.
PUBG, made by South Korean firm Bluehole Inc, is a survival-themed battle game that drops dozens of online players on an island to try and eliminate each other. It was launched in 2017 and has a huge global following.
