KARACHI: TikTok star Hareem Shah has demanded Prime Minister Imran Khan to lift the ban on the video-sharing app.
Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club today, she said the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) banned the app without any solid reason.
She said, “TikTok administration removes such vulgar and inappropriate content itself. there was no need to place a ban on the app,” she added.
The TikTok star further said, “If vulgarity is a concern it can only be stopped “by imposing Islamic laws”. Hareem Shah elaborated that several people got a chance to groom themselves on the platform and that new talent had emerged from TikTok.
Earlier, several other TikTokers had expressed similar concerns with some claiming that it was “shutting down the creative freedom of artists”.
Highlighting the fact that the application was a source of income for many, Pakistan’s biggest TikTok star, Jannat Mirza, a day earlier, had also called for the removal of the ban.
“In general, it was a good application. It was reachable for everyone. So much talent emerged through this app,” she added.
She conceded that it may have been used for “notorious and hate activities”, “but it TikTok must continue, with strict rules and conditions”.
On Friday, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had blocked TikTok after the company “failed to fully comply” with its instructions for “development of an effective mechanism for proactive moderation of unlawful online content”.
The PTA said the step was taken after the authority said it received several complaints from different segments of society against “immoral and indecent” content on the video-sharing application.
