The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s (PTA) ban on video sharing app ‘TikTok’ has been challenged in Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday.
The petition filed in SHC cites that PTA’s ban on TikTok violates Article 19 of the Constitution of Pakistan by preventing more than 20 million TikTok users in the country from using the widely popular video sharing app.
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According to Article 19 of the Constitution o Pakistan, Every citizen shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression, and there shall be freedom of the press, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defense of Pakistan or any part thereof friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, (commission of) or incitement to an offence.
The petitioner has argued that anyone misusing the application must be penalized specifically instead of banning the entire app altogether.
“It is unreasonable to block the entire application,” read the petition.
The petition seeking revocation of PTA’s ban on TikTok has been approved for hearing on October 15th.
The development comes as earlier, PTA had banned TikTok citing complaints over immoral and indecent content being propagated and promoted on the video sharing platform.
“In view of number of complaints from different segments of the society against immoral/indecent content on the video sharing application TikTok, PTA has issued instructions for blocking of the application,” said the notification issued by PTA.
