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Pakistan says ready to unblock TikTok if ‘vulgar’ content removed

A man wears a protective face mask with the TikTok logo as he walks along dental shops in Karachi, Pakistan July 14, 2020. (REUTERS)
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Updated 12 October 2020
KHURSHID AHMED 
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Pakistan says ready to unblock TikTok if ‘vulgar’ content removed

  • Pakistan’s telecommunications regulator banned TikTok over failing to remove ‘immoral’ content from its platform
  • Experts say the ban will have adverse economic impacts as it makes the environment unfriendly to investors, especially in the tech sector
Updated 12 October 2020
KHURSHID AHMED 

KARACHI: Chinese social media application TikTok, recently banned by Pakistan, will be unblocked if it removes “vulgar” content, the country’s information technology minister told Arab News on Saturday.

Pakistan’s telecommunications regulator, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), said on Friday it had banned TikTok over failing to remove “immoral” content from its platform after being granted “considerable” time to comply with the authority’s instructions.
“For the time being, (TikTok) has been closed. If they give guarantee, then it will be allowed to reopen,” Syed Aminul Haque, the federal minister for information technology and telecommunication, told Arab News. 

“They were warned twice during last three months to remove the vulgarity related content. Every time they promised but did not comply,” he said, adding that the government is ready talk to TikTok.

“If they approach (us), we will sit with them and after removal of the content, it (the app) will be restored,” Haque said.

After warnings in August, in September PTA said it had approached TikTok to immediately block “objectionable content” available on its platform in Pakistan and prevent the use of its platform “for disseminating illegal content.”

PTA did not say at the time what actions it would take if TikTok did not comply with its orders.

The decision to block the social media platform has stirred a debate, with experts warning that the move will have adverse economic impacts. 
“Platforms like Facebook, YouTube, TikTok are the cheapest source of marketing outreach and fastest conversion sources. If the touch points of access to market are closed and we don’t understand their needs, then many small and micro business will be affected. Their marketing cost was low due to these marketing tools,” Badar Khushnood, member of the National E-Commerce Council (NeCC), told Arab News.
“It would be far better to make decision by multi-stakeholder engagement”, Khushnood said. “We need to understand how these new communication technologies operate. How to align our cultural, religious, and national agendas with them for this deep multi-stakeholder engagement is must.” 

The ban is also seen as detrimental to the government’s Digital Pakistan Policy to accelerate the country’s digitization for economic development.

“It shows a regulatory environment where apps can be blocked and that makes the environment unfriendly to investors, especially in the tech sector at a time where the IT sector is growing,” said Usama Khilji, director of Bolo Bhi, a civil society organization geared toward advocacy, policy, and research in the areas of digital rights in Pakistan. 
“Moreover, apps like TikTok are a source of income for thousands of content creators, with some having a following of more than 10 million. This shows the economic potential that such a ban averts to the detriment of so many creative Pakistanis,” he told Arab News.

One of Pakistan’s most popular TikTok celebrities, Hareem Shah, said the ban would affect those who make a living from the platform.
“If we look at TikTok, there were many poor who have taken to this platform as means of livelihood. Their means of livelihood has been taken away ... This should not happen,” she said. 

According to political analysts, blocking social media platforms makes Pakistan look like a county that is not too keen on allowing innovative disruptive technology companies to grow. 

In August, Pakistan blocked five dating apps, namely Tinder, Tagged, Skout, Grinder and SayHi. In July, PTA said it had banned the Singaporean live-streaming app Bigo over “immoral, obscene and vulgar content.” Bigo was subsequently unblocked. The hugely popular online game PUBG also remained banned in Pakistan through July. 

“Applying laws in such a broad manner does not send the right message to local and international investors and startups. It raises a cloud over Pakistan’s technology sector,” Uzair Younus, political economist and host of podcast Pakistonomy, told Arab News from Washington.

12 killed, 27 injured in suicide blast outside district court in Pakistani capital

Updated 12 min 8 sec ago
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12 killed, 27 injured in suicide blast outside district court in Pakistani capital

  • Attack comes amid surge in violence against Pakistan by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan group
  • Islamabad says attackers operate from Afghanistan with India backing, Kabul and New Delhi deny
Updated 12 min 8 sec ago
Shahjahan Khurram

ISLAMABAD: At least twelve people were killed and 27 others injured in a suicide blast outside a court in Islamabad on Tuesday, the interior minister said. 

The explosion took place near the entrance of a district court in Islamabad’s G-11 sector while it was crowded with a large number of litigants.

“As of now, 12 people have been martyred and 27 have been injured,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told reporters. 

“We are already treating the injured, our teams are in the hospitals already. We are providing them the best possible facilities.”

A security official who declined to be named said “Indian-sponsored and Afghan Taliban–backed proxy group “Fitna-ul-Khawarij” carried out the suicide bombing, referring to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group that Islamabad says operates from safe havens in Afghanistan, with backing from India. Both nations deny this. 

The latest attack comes a day after militants including a suicide bomber tried to storm a cadet college in Wana, a city in the northwestern South Waziristan district, triggering a gunbattle that killed at least two of the attackers.

On Monday, Pakistani security forces said they had killed 20 Pakistani Taliban insurgents in raids on hideouts in the northwest region bordering Afghanistan as tensions between the two countries escalated. The army said eight militants were killed Sunday in North Waziristan, a former TTP stronghold in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and 12 others were killed in a separate raid in the Dara Adam Khel district, also in the northwest.

Meanwhile, Pakistan and Afghanistan have blamed each other for the collapse of a third round of peace talks in Istanbul over the weekend. 

The negotiations, facilitated by Qatar and Turkiye, began last month following deadly border clashes that killed dozens of soldiers and civilians on both sides.

TP is separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban and has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban’s return to power in 2021. Many TTP leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan since then. 

The Islamabad attack also takes place a day after a deadly car blast in India’s capital New Delhi killed at least eight and injured 20 people. An Indian officer said on Tuesday that police are probing the blast under a law used to fight “terrorism.”

Arch-rivals India and Pakistan frequently trade blame for supporting militant groups against each other. A militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir in April that killed 22 people, mostly tourists, sparked a four-day confrontation between the nuclear-armed neighbors in May that saw them exchange artillery, drone and air strikes before a ceasefire was brokered by the US. 
 

Topics: Islamabad bombblast Bomb blast in Islamabad Terrorism in Pakistan

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