PTA directed to submit reply in petition seeking ban on TikTok

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to submit reply in a petition seeking complete ban on TikTok App on the next hearing in the case slated for June 26.

Hearing the request of the petitioner for interim relief seeking removal of all the objectionable material from TikTok till final disposal of the petition, a division bench of the PHC comprising Chief Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Sahibzada Asadullah, directed the PTA lawyer Jehanzeb Mahsud to submit reply.

During the hearing, the chief justice remarked that the people did not do useful activities and they just used social media every time.Barrister Babar Shahzad Imran appeared for the petitioner Imran Khan while Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority was represented by its lawyer.

Imran Khan’s advocate had filed a petition praying the court to direct the respondents to the PTA, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and ministry of information to ban TikTok in Pakistan permanently for persistent breach of guidelines and violation of the Constitution.

Barrister Babar Shahzad told the bench that ‘blasphemous and indecent’ material was being uploaded on the TikTok App.He pleaded that the respondents should be directed not to allow such applications in future, which affected moral and ethical values of the Pakistani people.

He said that there were benefits of social media, but some social media platforms had opened the way to express anything disregarding decency, morality and the values of Islam in countries like Pakistan.

He told the court that the TikTok application was launched by a Chinese company that allowed users to create, share and discover short-form videos.The barrister said that Pakistan was amongst the top seven user countries as currently there were 54.4 million Pakistani users on the TikTok.

He said that the platform had violated Islamic values by spreading anti-Islamic, anti-Prophet (peace be upon him) and his companions, disrespectful content, vulgar, indecent, sectarian material.

The petitioner’s lawyer, while referring to different previous judgments of the superior courts and action taken by the government, said that in March 2021 the application was banned by the PTA on the order of the PHC.

After commitments made by the company, he said that it was allowed to function but it ignored the vital steps to stop the actions that always violated the Pakistani laws.He maintained that the application lacked the capability to authenticate the true identity of users and it only relied on user-provided data which might be wrong.He said the underage children could access the application, which will lead to adverse effects on their overall mental health.