More than six million videos were removed from TikTok in Pakistan in three months, the app said on Wednesday, as it battles an on-off ban in the deeply conservative country.
Wildly popular among Pakistani youth, the Chinese-owned app has been shut down by authorities twice over “indecent” content, most recently in March after which the company pledged to moderate uploads.
“In the Pakistani market, TikTok removed 6,495,992 videos making it the second market to get the most videos removed after the USA, where 8,540,088 videos were removed,” TikTok Pakistan’s latest transparency report said on Wednesday, covering January to March.
Read more: SHC orders ban on TikTok till 8th July in Pakistan
Around 15 percent of the removed videos were “adult nudity and sexual activities”. A spokesman said the Pakistan-made videos were banned as a result of both user and government requests.
In the Muslim nation, posting videos in Western clothes that reveal too much skin is taboo, and is often met with abuse. Earlier this month, small anti-TikTok rallies were held against what protesters called the spreading of homosexual content.
“One can speculate that this is a result of government pressure or a reflection of the large volume of content produced in Pakistan given the popularity of the platform, or both,” said digital rights activist Nighat Dad.
TikTok removed 6.5 million videos in Pakistan, making it the second largest market to get most videos removed after the US where 8.5m videos for content that violated guidelines during January to March pic.twitter.com/pxCjqtAvar
— Faseeh Mangi (@FaseehMangi) June 30, 2021
“Social media platforms are more willing to remove and block content in Pakistan to evade complete bans,” she said.
Government censoring immoral content
It comes as the app faces a fresh court battle in the port city of Karachi, where a judge has asked telecommunication authorities to suspend it for spreading “immoral content”.
The platform is still working in Pakistan, however. Freedom of speech advocates have long criticised the creeping government censorship and control of Pakistan’s internet and media.
Read more: TikTok blocked 8 million objectionable videos, accounts from Pakistan
Dating apps have been blocked and last year Pakistani regulators had asked YouTube to immediately block all videos they considered “objectionable” from being accessed in the country, a demand criticised by rights campaigners.
AFP with additional input by GVS News Desk