Peshawar High Court Seeks PTA Response to Petition Seeking TikTok Ban
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on June 20 issued a notice to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) seeking its response to a petition requesting a complete ban on TikTok. The petition, filed by lawyer Imran Khan, alleges that the popular video-sharing application continues to host “blasphemous and indecent” material.
The petitioner argued that this content violates the Constitution, provisions of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) of 2016 and Pakistan Penal Code and Rule 3 of the Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Contents Rules of 2021.
He has requested the court to completely ban TikTok in Pakistan and to prevent the future introduction of similar applications that could negatively impact the country’s “moral and ethical values.”
The PHC bench, consisting of Chief Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Sahibzada Asadullah, has directed the PTA counsel to submit its response by June 26. According to their latest transparency report, TikTok responded to over 300 requests from the government in the second half of 2023, removing 93.5% of the flagged content. This included taking down more than 12,000 videos for violating community guidelines and over 2,000 for breaching local law. Additionally, TikTok claims a proactive removal rate of 99.5% globally for content violating its guidelines in the last quarter of 2023.
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