Lahore - The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday rejected an application to issue stay order against TikTok, a popular Android-based video sharing app.
However, Justice Shahid Mubeen issued notices to the federal government and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) in a petition filed to ban the video sharing app in the country.
“The app is spoiling the national youth and promoting vulgarity,” the petitioner told the court through his counsel. The court issued notices on a petition filed by Advocate Nadeem Sarwar.
During the proceedings, the counsel representing the petitioner pleaded that the video-sharing application was a great mischief of modern times and it was destroying the youth and promoting immoral activities.
He pleaded that the video application had been causing negative social impacts, wastage of time, energy, money and nudity whereas it was also a source of harassment and blackmailing.
The counsel submitted that the application had been banned in Bangladesh and Malaysia for its pornography and inappropriate content and its use for mocking people.
The petitioner submitted that the respondents be directed to impose a ban on TikTok which is degrading the culture and encouraging pornography in the country.
He also requested to the court to issue a direction to the law ministry to launch measures for a legislation aimed to protect online privacy of kids. He also sought directions to Pemra to ensure that videos made on TikTok are not broadcast on television channels.
“The court should stop the Pemra from broadcasting Tik Tok videos,” the petitioner said.
The court after hearing the initial arguments issued notices to the federation and other respondents for September 25.
The video-sharing was created by a Chinese company and introduced in overseas market last year.
It is pertinent to mentioning that the viral video-sharing app by the Chinese company ByteDance has been banned as it has disappeared from the Google and Apple app stores in the country following the ban imposed by the federal government on April 16. As per the Indian High court, the app is exposing kids to pornographic and inappropriate video content.
