New Delhi: Last week, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority maintained that the ban on popular video-making app TikTok will continue in the country till ‘unlawful’ content was removed. The tussle between Pakistan’s regulatory body and the Chinese app keeps growing despite the makers indicating they are ready to take steps to moderate the content.
According to a report by Vice, the ByteDance owned social media app is launching safety centres with moderators to filter ‘vulgar’ content. The officials associated with the app were quoted as saying, “Keeping in mind all the cultural nuances of Pakistan, we have more than tripled our investment in the last twelve months in our dedicated local-language moderation team for Pakistan”. The video-sharing app will now field content moderators that will “formulate and enforce strategies and policies that are in line with the local laws, culture and prevailing sentiments in Pakistan”.
Tik Tok recently announced it has one billion active users worldwide. It continues to reiterate that Pakistan is an important market. “Pakistan is an important market for us and as soon as public access to TikTok is restored, we will bring new projects and investments,” a spokesperson said.
The PTA had asked the company to provide details to reach a “logical conclusion, including strategy and mechanism to control unlawful content,” according to a report in Dawn.
“Our team works around the clock to remove inappropriate content from the app for Pakistan in accordance with local laws and platform guidelines. As soon as a complaint is received, it is reviewed and any content found in violation of Community Guidelines and local laws is blocked or removed. Repeat offenders of Community Guidelines are banned from the platform,” the spokesperson said.
The app was banned for the fourth time in July this year due to pressure from conservative groups to moderate obscene content.
Because of frequent bans and unbans, Pakistan is the second largest country after the US where a maximum number of videos have been removed for not following the community guidelines. In the first quarter of 2021, six million infringing videos were removed from TikTok in Pakistan.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)