ISLAMABAD: A week after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) banned the video-sharing application TikTok, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday served notices to the telecom regulator and the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, asking them to explain their position on the issue.
The regulator banned the platform on October 9, saying the company failed to remove “immoral” and “indecent” content from the application. By then, TikTok had been installed 43 million times in Pakistan, according to the analytics firm Sensor Tower, making it the app’s 12th largest market in terms of installs.
A petition was filed in the high court a day earlier seeking a court order to lift the ban. The petitioner, a Lahore-based mixed martial artist, contended he has been using the platform to showcase his skills to earn a living. He maintained his income was “substantially affected” because of the ban on the app.
Taking up the petition, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah asked PTA to explain the reasons for the move.
Pointing to the reasons provided including the objectionable nature of the content offered, Justice Minallah said: “In this way, the entire internet will have to be shut down.”
The judge also reminded PTA that the court had already directed the regulator to frame rules to exercise its powers under the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), 2016, which it had failed to do.
The PTA said it gave TikTok “considerable time” to respond to their concerns, but the company “failed to fully comply.” A recent transparency report shows that authorities asked the application to restrict 40 accounts during the first half of 2020, but the company only restricted two of them.
The court also appointed Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) President Shehzada Zulfiqar, Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) Vice Chairman Abid Saqi, journalist Mazhar Abbas and former information minister Javed Jabbar as amici to assist the court on the issue of the banning of online platforms and its implications for freedom of expression and speech and right to access information.
They will also deliberate the alleged misuse of PECA and consider how freedom of expression and access to information could be curtailed by PTA on vague criteria such as morality and vulgarity.
The hearing was subsequently adjourned till Friday.
