Pakistan lands in anti-Tiktok league

Aftab Ahmed

As the PTI government faces criticism on social media to ban Chinese viral video entertainment App, Pakistan has been listed in the same Chinese anti-Tiktok league as the United States (US) and India

Chinese entertainment App TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, has been struggling in the world to avoid a ban especially in the United States (US) amid the trade war between the US and China.

The Trump administration decided to ban the Chinese App Tiktok but it was challenged in court which rescued it. The Trump administration has now appealed against the ruling of the court that stopped the former to impose a ban on Tiktok.

The court ruling had led to a delay in imposing a ban by the Trump administration on Tiktok in the US. The Trump administration has been taking measures to stop the use of Chinese App in the United States amid the trade war with China.

In addition to Tiktok, Trump administration had also moved against another Chinese WeChat owned by Tencent in a bid to block it and built pressure on American firms like Google and Apple to stop its hosting last month.

The tussle with Tiktok started in the US after ByteDance bought its forerunner, Musical.ly, in 2017. The Trump administration had started to probe a deal citing security concerns last year that it posed a threat due to collecting data of Americans.

The Chinese tech giant had also faced problems due to the Trump administration and even it lost the contract of 5G in the UK due to opposition to the Trump administration. Even, US authorities put pressure on US firms to stop the supply of tech equipment to Huawei.

India which is considered to be a close ally of the US now had also imposed bans on several Chinese Apps including Tiktok entertainment App citing security concerns.

India had also raised the same concerns like US that it was posing serious threat on its national security due to leakage of data of Indian. Actually, it was a tactic to block the Chinese video viral entertainment. The real reason was that India was following a line of US and moreover, India had also tussle with China. Therefore, it tried to drag Chinese App out of the India market to deprive it of the major revenue.

Pakistan also imposed a ban on Tiktok on Friday saying that it was imposing immoral content.

However, this decision led to strong criticism on social media against the decision taken by the PTI government.

The leading journalists, politicians, and some others criticized the government and added that Pakistan was now in an anti-Tiktok league with the US and India who had already imposed a ban on Tiktok in their country.

U.S and India had imposed a ban on Tiktok citing security concerns whereas Pakistan blocked it citing placement of immoral content.

The leading Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi said that PTI had blocked Tiktok, not because of immoral content but because Tiktokers were poking fun of the great leader.

The politician from PML-N Ahsan Iqbal said that the US and India banned Tiktok as a sanction measure against China. He has raised questions on the Imran government. Why has the Imran government banned Tiktok in Pakistan?

Bakhtawar B-Zardari’s daughter of Chairman PPP also criticized the PTI government’s decision to ban Tiktok in Pakistan. She said that immoral content is not on Tiktok, it is embedded in our sexiest society where women cannot wear yoga pants on TV.