TikTok is up and running again in Pakistan, just days after the Pakistan Telecoms Authority (PTA) suspended public access to the popular social media app over complaints from citizens about alleged immoral and obscene content.
On Friday, the Sindh High Court revoked the suspension but ordered the PTA to expedite hearings over complaints about the app’s inappropriate content. This is the third time PTA has revoked public access to TikTok in the past nine months.
The first attempt to ban the app came last October when Pakistani residents complained that the app allowed content that did not comply with the Islamic code of life and thus was in violation of the nation’s constitution. The ban was lifted just 10 days later, after the app’s owners, a Chinese-based company called Bytedance, promised to work on filtering out the allegedly immoral content. The second ban was implemented in March, after efforts to censor certain content were unsuccessful. This suspension was also lifted after the PTA offered to try their hand at censoring creator-made content.
Although these bans have been the result of complaints by citizens, others have criticized the government for wanting to suppress subversive political commentary and targeting content that features LGBTQ+ creators and ideas.