LAHORE: A lawyer has approached the Lahore High Court seeking a ban on TikTok, a popular short video-sharing app, in Pakistan for being a source of vulgarity and pornography, the media reported on Sunday.
"TikTok is a great mischief of modern times. It is destroying the youth and promoting immoral activities," Dawn news reported quoting advocate Nadeem Sarwar as saying in his petition.
The Federal Ministry of Law, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) have been listed as party in the petition.
The lawyer added that the application has been causing negative social impacts, wastage of time, energy and money and nudity, source of harassment and blackmailing.
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He said that TikTok has been banned in Bangladesh and Malaysia for its pornography and inappropriate content and its use for mocking people.
The lawyer contended that a lot of tragic incidents of blackmailing have already taken place where people recorded videos secretly and make them viral on TikTok.
He claimed that a girl also committed suicide out of fear of family after a video of her dancing in classroom filmed by her friend went viral on the app.
The lawyer asked the court to direct the respondents to impose a complete ban on TikTok in Pakistan for degrading culture and encouraging pornography.
He also sought a direction for the law ministry to initiate measures for a legislation aimed at protecting online privacy of children.
The lawyer said the Pemra be ordered to ensure that videos made on TikTok were not broadcast on television channels.