In a significant development, Pakistan's Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has blocked live streaming app Bigo and issued a final warning to Chinese app TikTok "to put in place a comprehensive mechanism to control obscenity, vulgarity and immortality through it social media application."
The PTA said in a statement that Bigo has been blocked under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act.
“PTA had issued necessary notices to the aforementioned social media companies under law to moderate the socialization and content within legal and moral limits, in accordance with the laws of the country. However, the response of these companies has not been satisfactory,” the telecom regulator in its statement.
According to PTA, the video sharing apps were having negative effects on the society, particularly on youth.
The PTA decided to ban Bigo days after banning online game PUBG. It is to be noted that OUBG has been temporarily blocked in Pakistan since July 1.
The decision to block PUBG was taken after the PTA received “numerous complaints against PUBG wherein it is stated that the game is addictive, wastage of time and poses a serious negative impact on the physical and psychological health of children,” according to the regulator.
The latest development comes few weeks after India banned 59 Chinese apps, including Bytedance's TikTok, Alibaba's UC Browser, and Tencent's WeChat.
