The popular video-sharing application TikTok has removed more than 8 million obscene videos and blocked around 400,000 accounts in Pakistan, according to a court hearing on its services at the Peshawar High Court.
A two-judge panel comprising Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Syed Arshad Ali presided over the hearing of the petition. The Counsel for the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Jehanzeb Mehsud, and its technical director updated the panel on the moderation of content that was being uploaded on TikTok.
ALSO READ
PM to Launch Health Insurance Scheme in 7 Districts of Punjab
The petition had originally been filed by 40 residents of Peshawar who had sought a complete ban on TikTok over the violation of Islamic constitutional provisions that prohibit all obscene acts from being displayed or shared in public.
While the court did not go so far as to ban the application in the country on a permanent basis, the panel observed that the introduction of a concrete mechanism for moderating video content on TikTok would be in everyone’s best interest.
In this regard, the PTA counsel revealed that the number of ‘moderators’ in the country has increased from 116 to 476, which had helped to remove objectionable content and accounts on the app.
