It was the fourth time in the past 15 months that Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority imposed and lifted such a ban.
Pakistan first blocked TikTok, which is very popular among
Pakistani teens and young adults, in October 2020 over what it described as
widespread complaints about allegedly "immoral, obscene and vulgar"
content on the app.
The regulatory agency said in a statement on Twitter that
TikTok had assured Pakistan it would also block users who upload "unlawful
content." The app, owned by China's ByteDance , has been downloaded almost
39 million times in Pakistan.
Pakistan, which has close relations with China, has been
urging TikTok to develop an effective mechanism to control unlawful content.
Over the years, Pakistan has also forwarded hundreds of
complaints to Facebook and Twitter about content, alleging it is offensive and
potentially insulting to Islam, which goes against Pakistani law.
In 2008, Pakistan banned YouTube over videos depicting the
Prophet Muhammad. Muslims generally believe any physical depiction of Islam's
prophet is blasphemous.